Put Option Sweeps: Bearish, Bullish, or Other?

Love2Trade$

Love2Trade$

Hi Options Whizzes,

Some questions about option sweeps on U.S. equities & ADRs. E.g. – “Apple Option Alert: Nov 15th $185 puts sweep (29) near the Ask: 514 @ $5.20 vs. 2415 OI.” I often see these & am trying to understand how to interpret them. What are your thoughts? Thank you all!

1. Are market makers usually the sellers of put options?

2. How can I get a hint of who is behind either side of a large option sweep trade?

3. I understand that a large option sweep consisting of a purchase of puts is a bearish bet on the stock. If a market maker was the one who sold those put options, then they have a strong incentive (and the resources) to prop up the stock price to have those puts expire worthless thereby profiting from the sale. So two large players are each on opposite sides of the trade. How would you personally view an option sweep of put options in this context (bearish, bullish, or some shade of grey)?
 
There is just too much noise to tell much about the character. Can generate examples where those numbers in a vacuum could be bullish or bearish, was the trade tied to stock or part of a spread? OPRA would show both. Customer or firm? Again an OPRA designation.
Married put would be a synthetic call and bullish.
Was it an ISO order - then generally not retail - but you can't be positive.

The tea leaves need more granularity to help define and even them there could/will be pieces missing.
 
ETJ said:
There is just too much noise to tell much about the character. Can generate examples where those numbers in a vacuum could be bullish or bearish, was the trade tied to stock or part of a spread? OPRA would show both. Customer or firm? Again an OPRA designation.
Married put would be a synthetic call and bullish.
Was it an ISO order - then generally not retail - but you can't be positive.

The tea leaves need more granularity to help define and even them there could/will be pieces missing.
More...

Thanks for the thoughtful detailed response! I understand basic options conceptually, but do not actively trade them so sorry if these are newbie questions.
  1. Is a direct membership with OPRA @ https://www.opraplan.com/ required in order to see the information you listed (trade tied to stock or part of spread, customer or firm, ISO)?
  2. Do Time & Sales or any third party subscription services show these OPRA designations?
 
ensemble said:
It is an aggressive order but is still meaningless noise. You will find more value in analyzing regular transactions.
More...

What do you define as a "regular" transaction, and what 1 or 2 things would I look for to analyze that transaction? Thank you!
 
Your broker and/or any service provider has the OPRA feed, ask them how to get it unfiltered. You are already paying for it from your broker.
 
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