Following Palantir PLTR options trading up and down using Unusual Whales
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Hey all,
Nicholas from the Unusual Whales team, here! We’re going to spend one issue every week walking you through some trades of the week for free to help your trading!
In this issue, we’re going to take a look at one call buyer in Panaltir who turned a sizable profit over the course of a few weeks, only to have news blow up their gains. Then, we’ll examine another trader, suspiciously timed, who capitalized on a massive reversal in $PLTR just hours before major news dropped. Palantir $PLTR hype train for a massive gain on their position.
To start us off here, let’s take a look at the long. As mentioned, this trade hit massive gains before news dropped that unwound the entire move. The trade we’re looking at took place on Palantir, $PLTR, following (and during) an absolute ripper in the stock. On February 4th, after $PLTR had already experienced a massive gap up from the $80s to $106+ per share, the $125 call contract expiring July 18, 2025, hit the tape.
Over 1,200 volume transacted on the already-price-inflated contract for an average fill price of $12.01 per contract, against only 68 open interest. This guaranteed new positioning. At the time of fill, $PLTR traded at $106.43 per share, and this contract was already up +178% from its pricing on February 3rd.
A glimpse at the volume profile chart shows us that on 2/4, this trader more or less bought the top of the day on their second tap of the contract; but the majority of the initial position was already in profit. Total premium spent on this position was around $1.4 million.
As the day chugged on, the trader experienced some hefty drawdown. From their average entry of $12.02, the contract price pulled back as low as $10.00, meaning roughly $400,000 of drawdown across the entire position. Things got a bit worse for the trader after that, with the price falling as low as $9.00 the very next day. However, a breakdown in the Historical Volume/OI table shows us this -25% drawdown didn’t last long. After a brief pullback to the $99 per share area, $PLTR continued along its apparent skybound path.
Over the next 8 days, $PLTR continued its meteoric move to the upside, dragging these contracts along with it. On 2/11, the position hit a high profit of $8.78 per contract. But the trader didn’t exit. Even on 2/14 when the contracts hit $19.20…. No exit.
As of February 19th, this position in the $125C 7/18/2025 is still open, and firmly in profit. From an initial entry of $12.02, these contracts now sit at a high of $22.15. To slap some numbers on there, that’s an 84% gain. If you remember, the trader initially opened this position for $1.4 million in premium. Tag +84% on there, and this trader is now sitting on $1.26 million in profit.
This trade serves as a good example of higher-stakes traders sticking to their thesis. This trader likely expected continuation, and despite the 25% drawdown on a high price tag, the position stayed open. The contract has almost exactly 5 months until expiration from the time of writing, $PLTR has seemingly shown no signs of cooling down, and the fact that no substantial volume has transacted tells us that this position is most likely still open in full.
In the days since this trade opened, news has hit of an 8% budget cut to the Pentagon, as well as a new sale plan from the CEO. As of the time of writing, the position is still open, but sitting at a loss of about 10%, with the contract trading at $10.87. This serves as a prime example of how news and circumstances can change the landscape of a trade, and how all traders should always manage risk and to be happy with profits! All that said, the contract doesn’t expire until July, and we have no real way of knowing what this trader’s intentions are. Time will tell!
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Like I said; on February 19th Unusual Whales Community also noted significant activity on the $PLTR $120 put contract expiring on March 7, 2025, just HOURS before the news broke.
Thousands in volume of the $120P 3/07/2025 hit the tape, firmly at the ask price of $4.25 per contract, to the tune of around $600,000 in premium. This struck many as unusual, given the vigorous upside trajectory that $PLTR has been on.
For example, when this trade hit the tape, $PLTR was still upbound, and green on the day, with seemingly no signs of stopping.
In the course of a few hours following the announcement of an 8% budget cut to the Department of Defense, and CEO Alex Karp’s plans to sell more than $1 billion worth of his shares, this trader took their initial premium to open the trade, roughly $600,000, to a 214% gain. From their entry of $4.25 per contract, the position then (likely) closed at the end of the day for $13.36 per contract! We can see the likely exit here at the end of the day, and given the fact that only 772 contracts carried over into open interest, we can confirm that the initial trade, or at least most of it, was exited intraday.
Of the total volume, around 722 contracts stayed open into the next day, and the contract hit a new high of $25.19. All in all, the total move on the contracts that carried over came in at +492%! Millions in profits were made.
The characteristics of this trade were such that they satisfied our 'opening trade' alert filters, available through the options flow subscription.
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