Intel closed at $86.30, down 5.86%.

Despite the daily decline, options flow revealed powerful institutional conviction, headlined by a $23.60 million in-the-money call buy and an $11.47 million bull call spread, both extending to November 2026. The aggressive positioning overwhelmed bearish trades, generating a net bullish premium of $25.32 million and signaling that large traders view the pullback as a long-term accumulation opportunity.

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Options Indicators

INTC's implied volatility is 88.04%, and with an IV percentile of 86.06%, current option volatility sits in an elevated range, indicating that options are priced expensively relative to their own recent history. The IV/HV ratio of 1.11 further suggests implied volatility is running above realized volatility, meaning the options market is embedding somewhat richer forward volatility expectations than what the stock has recently delivered. In this setup, outright option buying faces a higher premium burden, while premium-selling approaches or defined-risk spread structures may offer better efficiency.

The Call/Put volume ratio is 2.35.

Large Trades

A CALL purchase worth $23.60 million was the largest displayed trade, consisting of 9,200 contracts of the November 20, 2026 $70.00 call bought outright. With INTC referenced at $86.30, this strike is in the money, which makes the position more delta-heavy and more directly tied to upside participation in the stock rather than pure volatility speculation. As a long single-leg call, the trade is clearly bullish, expressing a directional view that INTC can continue higher over a long-dated horizon while using options to secure leveraged upside exposure.

A bullish call spread worth $11.47 million was the other featured trade, built by buying 10,000 November 20, 2026 $120.00 calls and selling 10,000 November 20, 2026 $130.00 calls, both strikes currently out of the money versus the $86.30 reference price. This is a bull call spread established for a net debit, with the long $120.00 call costing $6.51 million and the short $130.00 call bringing in $4.96 million. Strategically, it represents a defined-risk directional bet on further upside into late 2026, while capping gains above $130.00 in exchange for lowering upfront premium cost versus a naked call purchase.

Overall sentiment across all large trades was bullish, with total bullish flow of $55.47 million against bearish flow of $30.15 million, leaving a net positive difference of $25.32 million. The directional judgment is clearly bullish: the largest trades were upside call structures, including a sizable in-the-money long call and a large bull call spread, while broader flow also showed meaningful premium-selling in puts that typically aligns with constructive or downside-tolerant positioning. Although there was notable bearish call selling and some put buying in the full tape, the aggregate balance of capital favored upside exposure and suggests institutional sentiment remains positive on INTC.

Strategy Reference

Given elevated IV, traders with a neutral-to-bullish outlook may consider selling the November 20, 2026 $60.00 put to capture rich premium while targeting a strike well below the recent lows, or replicating the bullish conviction with a lower-cost November 2026 $100.00/$120.00 call spread to define risk while still participating in a continued recovery.