Koen Hoorelbeke

Financials flow turned sharply defensive on 18 Mar. Confirmed opening risk was dominated by massive deep-ITM put buying in $V, $JPM, $BLK, $MA and $GS into 20 Mar expiry, with $XLF adding longer-dated protection. The tape looked like hedge-first positioning. #options #financials

Yesterday's options flow (18 mar) markets: bearish mag7: bearish crypto: bearish biotech: hedging metals: hedging energy: accumulation rates: bearish risk-off: bearish semis: bearish financials: bearish

Semis flow turned sharply defensive into the close. Confirmed-opening put activity dominated in AMD, NVDA, QCOM, AVGO and SMH, with several trades looking like near-dated hedge structures into Fed/expiry risk. MU was more mixed, but the sector tape leaned bearish. #options

Risk-off ETFs saw fresh downside opening flow on 18 Mar, not fresh safety demand. A huge XLU May put package dominated, with added XLP and XLV put buying further out the curve. Small XLV call buying was not enough to change the tone. #optionsflow #ETF #riskoff

Rates ETF flow skewed defensive into the 18 Mar Fed day. Biggest fresh risk sat in HYG downside puts, while TLT showed mixed duration positioning with upside calls and some near-term put demand. Credit looked more fragile than Treasuries. #options #rates #Fed

Energy options leaned toward protected accumulation, not broad risk-on. Massive deep-ITM call opening in CVX and XOM stood out, but XOP/XLE plus SLB and EQT still saw meaningful put demand. Majors strong, sector tape still hedged. #options #energy #oil

Metals options leaned defensive on 18 Mar. Huge opening GLD put flow and heavy SLV downside positioning pointed to protection first, even as miners still drew upside call interest in GDX and NEM. Net message: hedge the metal, selectively own the miners. #options #gold #silver

Biotech ETF flow leaned defensive into the close. XBI showed repeated opening put-spread activity, while XLV and IBB also attracted downside protection. There was still selective upside in XBI June calls, but the cleaner message was hedge first, chase later #options #biotech #XLV

Crypto flow skewed defensive into the close. Confirmed opening was dominated by massive new COIN and MSTR put positions, while ETF/miner upside calls in IBIT, ETHA and CORZ were secondary. Message: hedge crypto beta first, chase upside later. #options #crypto #bitcoin

Mag7 flow turned decisively defensive on 18 Mar. Massive confirmed-opening put ladders in TSLA, MSFT and META dominated the tape, mostly into the 20 Mar monthly expiry, pointing to protection and downside pressure rather than clean upside risk. #options #Mag7 #volatility

18 Mar options flow closed with protection in charge. QQQ, IWM, SPY and a long list of single names saw aggressive put opening into 20 Mar, while one large SPX synthetic long stood out as the main counter-signal. Net message: hedge first, chase later. #options #SPX #QQQ

For those who speak Norwegian finansavisen.no/finans/2026/03… #bitcoin #ether

Market Quick Take - 19 March 2026 social.saxo/dyurjkj via @saxobank #equities #volatility #crypto #iran #oil #fed

, especially in the bitcoin ETF sleeve. Bottom line: the best-supported read is hedging with selective upside rather than a pure bearish reset. #crypto #beforefed #fed #bitcoin #ethereum #ibit

Crypto etf options flow (18 mar 13:47 NYT): The dominant tone in crypto ETFs was defensive rather than outright capitulative. The clearest confirmed opening trade was the IBIT 17 Apr 39 put, bought on the ask for roughly $1.06m in premium, with volume above open interest, ....

spread construction, or monetisation than clean bullish chasing. So the tape did not show investors abandoning crypto-beta. It showed investors keeping upside exposure alive while spending more aggressively on downside insurance ...

upside participation: IBIT 23 Mar 38 calls were bought, and ETHA saw notable opening interest in 1 May 15 calls. The catch is that several sizable IBIT and ETHA call lines also traded at the bid, which makes part of the upside flow look more like overwriting, ...

which points to fresh downside protection. That was reinforced by smaller confirmed-opening puts in IBIT, plus opening put activity in BITO and ETHE, although some of those prints went through mid and are less clean on direction. Against that, there was still meaningful ...

Financials flow turned defensive into the close. Confirmed opening activity was dominated by heavy put exposure in JPM, V, BLK, MA and GS, while KRE call buying offered only selective upside against a broader hedge-first tone. #options #financials #marketstructure

Yesterday's options flow (17 mar) markets: unclear mag7: bearish crypto: unclear biotech: unclear metals: bearish energy: unclear rates: unclear risk-off: unclear semis: bearish financials: bearish

Semis flow turned sharply defensive on 17 Mar, with opening put risk dominating in NVDA, QCOM, AMD and AVGO. Selective upside in AMAT, MU and SMH showed up, but not nearly enough to change the tape. Bottom line: semis saw protection first, conviction second. #options #semis #NVDA