NVDA Options Flow Posts $111M Net Bearish Premium on Post-Earnings Positioning

The Tape: Net Premium Skews Bearish

Institutional options flow in NVDA logged a net premium impact of negative $111.3 million today, a distinctly bearish skew relative to recent sessions. The flow itself is scattered across strikes and expirations, which matters: concentrated positioning tends to move dealer hedging in a single direction, while dispersed flow like this often reflects portfolio-level hedging rather than coordinated directional bets.

NVDA reported Q1 fiscal 2027 earnings on May 20, beating on revenue ($81.6B) and EPS ($1.87), but the stock sold off 1.77% post-print. Five days later, traders appear to be resetting exposure rather than pressing into a trend. That's consistent with the flow profile today: no single whale-sized print dominates the tape, and the premium distribution leans toward protection rather than speculation.

Notable Prints: Puts and Calls Across the Curve

The largest single alert was a $370K cluster in the NVDA 210 calls expiring May 29, marked as RepeatedHitsDescendingFill. That pattern, where successive fills come in at lower prices, typically signals a seller working out of a position or a market maker absorbing supply. It's not inherently bullish.

On the put side, the $217.50 strike expiring May 29 saw $210K in premium, also tagged as descending fills. A separate $210K print hit the June 18 205 puts. Both are near-the-money relative to NVDA's current price in the mid-220s, which suggests these are hedges rather than speculative bets on a collapse.

Further out, the July 17 220 calls attracted two distinct prints totaling roughly $350K. These were mixed: one ascending fill (demand), one neutral. That's the kind of ambiguity that makes it dangerous to call the flow directionally bullish. It could be a covered call seller, a spread leg, or a speculative buyer. We don't know.

Dealer Positioning and What It Implies

When net premium is this negative and flow is spread across multiple expirations, the primary effect is on dealer gamma. Dealers who sold puts are short gamma, meaning they'll need to sell more stock as NVDA falls and buy as it rises. That dynamic amplifies moves in either direction.

The May 29 expiry is four days out. That's where charm, the decay of delta over time, starts to accelerate. If NVDA stays pinned near current levels, those short-dated puts will lose delta rapidly, and dealers will unwind hedges by buying stock. But if the stock drifts toward the 210-215 zone, dealers get longer gamma and hedging flows could exacerbate downside.

For context, NVDA guided Q2 revenue to $91B and announced an $80B buyback authorization alongside a dividend hike to $0.25 per share. The fundamental backdrop isn't bearish. But post-earnings price action has been choppy, and options flow suggests institutions are paying for protection rather than pressing longs. You can track this in real time on the [Whale Alerts dashboard](/whalealerts).

What to Watch

The 210 strike is the pivot for this week's expiry. If NVDA breaks below 215, dealer hedging could accelerate selling into that level. Above 220, short-dated put decay should support the bid.

July 220 calls are worth monitoring. If ascending fills resume at that strike, it would signal fresh demand rather than position management. For now, the flow is defensive. Not bearish in the "get short" sense, but hedged in a way that suggests large holders aren't chasing the post-earnings bounce.