Rally-Chasing Day Traders Now Dominate Market for Call Options
- Retail crowd overtakes the pros in trading of bullish options
- Institutions ease off bets after this year’s unexpected gains
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Devil-may-care day traders have become the dominant force in the market for bullish US stock options, as the professional investing class dials back bets after months spent chasing this year’s tech driven melt-up.
Retail investors — those making bite-sized trades of 1 to 10 contacts at a time — almost doubled their activity in single-stock options last quarter from the period before, according to an analysis of Options Clearing Corp. data by Barclays Plc.