Traders at work at the New York Stock Exchange on June 9, 2026.
new york stock exchange
It escalated quickly.
Investors’ favorite trades are those where they suddenly can’t stop betting even though the price keeps going down.
chip stock VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) Closed on Tuesdays. The ETF is currently down more than 10% from its all-time high hit last week, and options traders expect it to get even worse.
VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) for the past 5 business days
As of midday Tuesday, put volume exceeded call volume by a factor of four, and traders were buying more than five times as many puts as calls, according to Think-O-Swim data. Of the roughly $350 million in premium traded on SMH, $260 million was tied up in puts, according to SpotGamma data.
The price move is a cruel turnaround for investors who couldn’t get enough of hardware stocks linked to the rise of artificial intelligence. But for options traders who have been bearish recently, the persistent put buying in the face of deep selling is a sign that some of the sector’s biggest cheerleaders are looking in a different direction.
“Friday’s decline was not supposed to be a one-hit wonder,” Theotrade co-founder Don Kaufman said by phone. “All of these SMH put buyers intend to force market makers to short the stock or short the Nasdaq futures, which will create a feedback loop very similar to the one that caused the stock price to rise, but the downside could get even worse if asset managers and individuals (traders) panic.”
Bearish sentiment on SMH is reflected in the broader tech industry Nasdaq 100Here, the optional volume is Invesco QQQ ETF It is also biased towards puts. Of the $3.7 billion traded in QQQ options on Tuesday, about $2.5 billion was in puts.
The most popular contract on QQQ by dollar value and volume is currently an in-the-money 700-strike put expiring on Tuesday, with $44 million in premium exchanged. The runner-up is a 715-strike put expiring next Monday, trading at $35 million at the time of writing.
Even in transactions with Round Hill Memory ETF (DRAM) Call buying was more persistent and volume was balanced overall, but things started to deteriorate as trading deteriorated on Tuesday. Traders bought more than 24,000 puts in the fund, but fewer than 15,000 calls.
