Option Movers | Nvidia's Bear Call Spread Caps Upside at $200; Tesla's $3 Million Long-Dated Put Buy Dominates Bearish Flow

Market Overview

Wall Street ended sharply lower on Wednesday (July 29) after the Federal Reserve held interest rates steady, with AI-related chip stocks adding to recent declines.

Regarding the options market, a total volume of 63,178,615 contracts was traded, of which 54% were call options.

Top 10 Option Volumes

Top 10: $NVDA(NVDA)$, $TSLA(TSLA)$, $AAPL(AAPL)$, $INTC(INTC)$, $SPCX(SPCX)$, $MU(MU)$, $AMD(AMD)$, $SOFI(SOFI)$, $AMZN(AMZN)$, $PLTR(PLTR)$

$NVIDIA(NVDA)$ closed at $190.01 on Wednesday, down 3.55%.

NVDA’s implied volatility is 48.16%, and with an IV percentile of 74.50%, current option volatility sits in an elevated zone, indicating that options are priced expensively relative to their own recent history. The IV/HV ratio of 1.25 further suggests implied volatility is running above realized volatility, reinforcing the view that the market is embedding a relatively rich premium into current option prices. The Call/Put volume ratio is 1.43.

A bullish bull put spread worth $6.67 million stood out as one of the day’s largest combination trades. The structure involved selling 4,000 December 18, 2026 $170.00 puts and buying 7,000 December 18, 2026 $140.00 puts, with both strikes out of the money versus the $190.01 stock reference. As a bull put spread, this is a net credit strategy and reflects premium collection with a constructive directional view, expressing confidence that NVDA can stay above the higher short-put strike over time while using the lower long puts as downside protection.

A bearish bear call spread worth $2.29 million was the other highlighted large combination. This trade sold 5,000 August 7, 2026 $200.00 calls and bought 5,000 August 7, 2026 $207.50 calls, with both call strikes also out of the money relative to the current stock price. This is a net credit strategy designed to collect premium while capping upside risk, signaling a bearish-to-neutral outlook that NVDA is unlikely to rise through the $200.00 area by expiration.

$NVDA 20260807 200.0 CALL$

$NVDA 20260807 207.5 CALL$

Unusual Options Activity

$Tesla Inc.(TSLA)$ closed at $298.32 , down 2.97%.

A PUT buy worth $3.00 million was the dominant large trade, with 1,500 contracts bought on the December 18, 2026 $275.00 put. With TSLA referenced at $298.32, this strike was out of the money at the time of execution, making it a clear downside bet or protective hedge positioned for a meaningful decline over a longer-dated horizon. The size and maturity suggest the trader was willing to pay substantial premium for bearish exposure extending well into late 2026, which points to a serious conviction that TSLA could weaken materially from current levels.

$TSLA 20261218 275.0 PUT$

A bullish call spread worth $0.24 million was the other highlighted trade, structured as a July 31, 2026 $330.00/$345.00 bull call spread with 6,730 contracts bought at the lower strike and 6,730 contracts sold at the higher strike. Both calls were out of the money versus the $298.32 reference price, and the package was executed for a net debit of $0.24 million. This is a defined-risk bullish directional strategy that seeks upside into the $330.00 to $345.00 zone while reducing upfront premium cost through the short higher-strike call, signaling a measured upside view rather than an aggressive breakout expectation.

Despite some interest in upside through limited-risk bull call spreads, the flow was overwhelmingly dominated by put buying and bearish premium-selling structures, indicating that larger traders were primarily positioned for downside risk, capped upside, or at best a constrained trading range rather than a sustained bullish move in TSLA.

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