Tuesday's tape had some clean reads and some traps. Here are 5 sweeps from the session — 3 that worked and 2 that didn't. No cherry-picking. This is what the scanner actually showed.
The Ones That Moved
1. AMD — $1.4M Put Sell, $210 strike, 8 DTE
3:05 PM ET. Someone sold $1.4M in AMD $210 puts expiring April 2. Delta -0.29, IV 56%. Opening position.
This is a bullish bet — selling puts means you want the stock to stay above the strike or go higher. The short DTE and the size say they're confident AMD holds $210 in the next week.
What happened: +167.6%. AMD held and the puts decayed. This was the best signal of the day.
What stood out on the tape: Grade A. Aggressive fill. 8 DTE with $1.4M in premium — that's not a hedge, that's a directional bet with a tight timeline.
2. NVDA — $1.7M Put Sell, $170 strike, 30 DTE
3:28 PM ET. $1.7M sweep selling NVDA $170 puts for April 24. Delta -0.28, IV 38%. Opening position.
Similar thesis to AMD — bullish via put selling. But the $170 strike with NVDA trading around $195 gives a lot of room. This is someone saying "NVDA doesn't drop 13% in a month."
What happened: +80.3%. NVDA stayed well above $170.
What stood out: Grade A. The strike was far enough below spot that this was less about direction and more about conviction that NVDA doesn't collapse. That 30 DTE gave it time to work.
3. GOOG — $11.4M Put Sell, $295 strike, 51 DTE
10:03 AM ET. The biggest single-name sweep of the day. $11.4M selling GOOG $295 puts for May 15. Delta -0.52, IV 35%. Opening position.
$11.4M. That's institutional. With GOOG around $292, the $295 strike was right at the money — this is someone willing to buy GOOG at $295 if it drops. Classic big-money accumulation through put selling.
What happened: +30.3%. Not the flashiest return, but on $11.4M in premium that's real money.
What stood out: The size. $11.4M on a single sweep doesn't show up often. When it does, the conviction behind it is worth paying attention to.
The Ones That Didn't
4. TSM — $4.4M Call Buy, $350 strike, 51 DTE
10:19 AM ET. $4.4M buying TSM $350 calls for May 15. Delta 0.52, IV 42%. Opening position. Grade A.
This had everything going for it on paper — big premium, at-the-money delta, reasonable DTE, aggressive fill. Looked like a strong directional call buy on the AI chip theme.
What happened: -38.3%. Stopped out.
What went wrong: TSM pulled back through the week. The flow was real — $4.4M is institutional — but timing matters. Even institutional traders get entries wrong. The data showed conviction. The market didn't care.
5. TSLA — $1.6M Call Buy, $385 strike, 2 DTE
2:15 PM ET. $1.6M buying TSLA $385 calls expiring Thursday. Delta 0.59, IV 43%. Opening position. Grade A.
Short-dated, big premium, aggressive. This is someone making a 48-hour bet that TSLA rips past $385.
What happened: -48.9%. Time decay ate it alive.
What went wrong: 2 DTE is a double-edged sword. When it works, returns are explosive. When it doesn't, theta is brutal. TSLA didn't move fast enough and the position bled out. The flow was aggressive but the clock was the enemy.
What's the Takeaway?
3 out of 5 worked. That's a good day. But the pattern is worth noticing:
- The winners were all put sells — bullish bets through premium collection with defined risk. They didn't need a big move, just stability.
- The losers were both call buys — needing the stock to actually move higher within a timeframe. More directional, more dependent on timing.
That's not a rule. It's just what showed up on Tuesday's tape. Next week could look completely different.
The point isn't to follow every sweep. It's to see the data, understand the context, and make your own call.