- Nvidia accounted for 80% of SOX options trades in February
- Options trading last month jumped sevenfold from year earlier
Options trading in semiconductor stocks is exploding as investors bet on the hottest thing in equity markets these days: artificial intelligence.
Daily average notional volume in single stock puts and calls for members of the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index exceeded $145 billion in February. That’s about double the average at the end of 2023 and seven times higher than a year earlier.
Nvidia Corp., the chip maker at the heart of the AI bull market, accounted for almost four-fifths of the trades. Last year, Nvidia’s market value soared by almost 240%. It’s up 85% in 2024, pulling the semiconductor index up by more