Short-term trades at all-time highs?
- BYD rallied 40% from April low to July record high
- Longer-term, stock in multi-year trading range
- Options activity conservative before earnings
Financial stocks will be getting most of the attention as a new earnings season gets underway, but a gaming stock releasing its numbers in a little more than a week popped up on a few of Monday’s LiveAction scans for unusual options volume.
Casino and resort operator Boyd Gaming’s (BYD) call volume was around nine times average on Monday morning. While a single trade is often responsible for a ticker landing on a scan, that wasn’t the case for BYD. There were a few modest trades scattered across different expirations and strike prices (as far out as January 2026), although a couple of trades in out-of-the-money calls expiring this Friday accounted for a good chunk of the day’s total volume:
Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
Although the open interest (OI) in both contracts was among the highest for all BYD call options, these weren’t necessarily longstanding positions. In fact, a look at each option’s price and volume charts showed that a significant portion of their trading activity took place from July 9-11, a three-day window highlighted by BYD hitting its most recent record high after a 40% rally off its April low:
Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
However, the monthly chart inset (upper left) shows this surge hasn’t pushed the stock significantly past its February high, which had basically pushed the upper boundary of a nearly four-year trading range somewhat higher.
Three noteworthy aspects of Monday’s call trades:
1. Volume in both contracts was less than their OI.
2. The prices of both contracts dropped sharply when the stock sold off on July 11. For example, the $85 call closed at $1.94 on July 10 and $0.25 on July 11—a healthy profit for traders who may have shorted the options, and a significant loss for those who bought them.
3. There was no indication that traders were rolling their positions in the July options into later expirations. For example, there was volume of just 75 and 40 contracts in the August $80 and $82.50 calls, respectively.
This suggest Monday’s call activity may have been less about positioning for an upcoming earnings release or evidence of a longer-term upward bias on BYD than it was about taking profits or cutting losses on short-term trades in options that were going to expire at the end of the week.
Note: BYD is scheduled to release earnings on July 24. On Monday, Morgan Stanley & Co.’s 12-month price target for the stock was $80, a little below where it was trading yesterday.
Earnings season and sectors: Morgan Stanley & Co. strategists noted Monday there’s been a trend of analysts upwardly revising earnings estimates since mid-April, with the financial sector seeing the most significant improvement in this metric. The strategists also reaffirmed their positive take on industrials, which is the strongest S&P 500 sector this year.1
Market Mover Update: A trader appeared to open a large put options position in Amkor Technologies (AMKR) on Monday. With the stock down more than 2% intraday and trading a little above $21, volume in the August $17 puts was around 8,900 contracts—almost 39 times the total average daily put volume. AMKR is currently scheduled to release earnings on July 28.
Today’s numbers include (all times ET): consumer price index (8:30 a.m.), Empire State Manufacturing Index (8:30 a.m.).
Today’s earnings include: Bank Of New York Mellon (BK), Blackrock (BLK), Citigroup (C), Crown Castle (CCI), Discover Financial (DFS), J.B. Hunt Transport (JBHT), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Kinder Morgan (KMI).
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1 MorganStanley.com. Weekly Warm-up: Equity Market Impacts from Tariffs and Tax. 7/14/25.