OPTIONS FLOW$INTCIntel CorpOpen ticker analysis →
A 2-leg, $5.42M options structure landed in $INTC on Wednesday, built around the $115 to $120 strikes. The legs lean bullish: the bought side profits as Intel rises, and the sold side helps pay for it.
What happened
The legs printed together in the final half hour, around 3:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, October 21, with $INTC near $93.06, for $5.42M in combined premium across 20,000 contracts.
Trading the legs as one ticket locks in the price of the whole structure at once, which is how professional desks usually put on spreads.
Netting the legs, the trader paid about $740K to put the position on. The sold legs mean the risk does not stop at that debit if the stock moves hard against them.
- INTC Dec 18 $115 Call: 10,000 contracts at $3.08 (bought)
- INTC Dec 18 $120 Call: 10,000 contracts at $2.34 (sold)
Why it matters
A vertical call spread buys one strike and sells another in the same expiration. It caps both the cost and the payoff, so the trader has picked a target zone and a maximum loss in advance.
Net of all legs, the structure behaves like being long roughly 47,200 shares of INTC, about $4.39M of stock exposure.
The strikes run from $115.00 (23.6% above the stock) to $120.00 (29% above the stock), so the trade is built around a zone rather than a single target.
With 58 days until Dec 18, this is positioning for months, not a quick flip. Implied volatility ran around 64%, elevated, which means traders are paying up for movement.
Over the last 12 sessions $INTC has traded between $88.77 and $118.20 and is down 20.2% over that stretch. The stock came into this trade near the bottom of that range.
The numbers
| Structure | Vertical call spread (2 legs) |
|---|---|
| Lean | Bullish |
| Expirations | Dec 18 (nearest in 58 days) |
| Strikes | $115, $120 |
| Contracts | 20,000 |
| Total premium | $5.42M |
| Net cost | $740K debit |
| Stock at the trade | $93.06 |
Three ways this could play out
Bullish continuation
A move through $120.00 puts $INTC above every strike. That is where this bullish structure does its best work.
Bearish rejection
A drop under $115.00 takes $INTC below every strike. With the lean on the bullish side, that is where the position takes its worst damage.
Neutral stabilization
If $INTC settles between $115.00 and $120.00 into Dec 18, time decay and the final price decide who wins, which is exactly what spreads are built to control.
What to watch next
- $115.00 and $120.00: the outer strikes that define this trade.
- Open interest on each leg in the next session, to confirm the structure was opened rather than closed.
- Dec 18: expiration, 58 days out for the nearest leg, when the structure resolves.
- Follow-on spreads at nearby strikes, which would show a desk building a larger position.
- $88.77 and $118.20: the edges of INTC’s recent trading range.
