By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Options players are piling in to riskier bets across the U.S. stock market, supporting a rally that has come on the back of fading election worries and expectations of a Republican lock on power in Washington next year.
The bullish plays span a wide array of assets, from electric car maker Tesla to small-cap stocks and regional banks. Together, they have helped drive the S&P 500’s gain of 3% since the Nov. 5 vote.
“We’ve got this relief from this big risk,” said Garrett DeSimone, head of quantitative research at OptionMetrics. “It’s just across the board … you’ve got everything, with the exception of bonds, going up.”
Options traders adopted a defensive posture ahead of the election to hedge their portfolios from possible election-related volatility, including worries over a result that might be too close to call immediately or contested.
Many are now shifting to a bullish stance, wary of underperforming a market that has rallied following a victory by Donald Trump and Republican control of both houses of Congress, which had been anticipated following the election and was projected by Edison Research on Wednesday. The result is expected to give Republicans a freer hand in pursuing their economic agenda, which includes tax cuts and looser regulations.
Investors are “panicking to chase stocks at all time highs,” said Charlie McElligott, managing director of cross-asset strategy at Nomura, in a note earlier this week.
The volume on daily call options – which profit when stocks rise – has outnumbered puts by a ratio of 1.5-to-1, compared with 1.3-to-1 during the rest of the year, data from Trade Alert showed.
Net call volume across single-stock options jumped sharply across most sector groups after the election, according to Deutsche Bank.
More broadly, the volatility landscape has changed dramatically, with the Cboe Volatility Index – a measure of demand for portfolio protection – sinking to a near four-month low of 13.67.
“What the volatility market was worried about didn’t come to fruition, so all that excess worry came out of the market,” said Michael Thompson, co-portfolio manager at boutique investment firm Little Harbor Advisors.
McElligott cited heightened demand for call options in a range of names including in options on iShares Russell 2000 ETF ARK Innovation ETF, SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF.
The swing from worry to upside speculation was visible in the options on Tesla, with investors pouring in to call options as the stock soared after the election on bets that CEO Elon Musk’s close ties with Trump may benefit the EV maker.