The share price of Intel closed at USD 96.69, down 6.58 percent.

Large options trades in Intel presented a mixed but moderately bullish picture, highlighted by a $1.27 million long put purchase hedging against a pullback and a $1.20 million short put sale reflecting premium-collecting bullish confidence. The overall flow leaned constructive, with net bullish activity exceeding bearish positioning.

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Options Indicators

INTC’s implied volatility is 66.69%, while its IV percentile stands at 41.43%, which places current option pricing in a neutral volatility regime rather than a particularly cheap or expensive one. With the IV/HV ratio at 0.90, implied volatility is running slightly below historical volatility, suggesting the market’s forward volatility pricing is somewhat restrained relative to what the stock has recently realized.

The Call/Put volume ratio is 1.43.

Large Trades

A PUT buy worth $1.27 million was opened in the September 18, 2026 $85.00 strike, with 5,000 contracts purchased while INTC was trading around $96.685, leaving the option out of the money. This is a clearly bearish single-leg trade: the buyer paid premium for downside exposure well below the current stock price, suggesting either a longer-dated hedge against a material pullback or a directional bet that INTC could weaken meaningfully over time.

A short PUT trade worth $1.20 million was executed in the October 2, 2026 $70.00 strike, with 16,725 contracts sold, also out of the money versus the $96.685 reference stock price. This is a bullish single-leg position because the seller is collecting premium on a far-below-market strike, expressing confidence that INTC will remain above $70.00 into expiration; strategically, it looks like premium collection with a constructive outlook, though it still carries assignment risk if the stock drops sharply.

Overall, large-trade sentiment in INTC leaned bullish, with total bullish flow at $6.81 million versus $5.14 million of bearish flow, for a net bullish difference of $1.67 million. The directional bias is therefore moderately positive rather than aggressively one-sided: the bullish side was supported by repeated short-put premium-selling activity and call buying, while the bearish side still featured meaningful downside protection and bearish premium structures, indicating that investors were constructive on balance but still attentive to downside risk and willing to hedge.

Strategy Reference

For a seller seeking a low assignment probability, the far out-of-the-money $70.00 put strike used in the short trade is a reasonable reference, though those willing to post less margin could consider a bull put spread such as selling the $80.00 put and buying the $70.00 put to define risk while still collecting premium.