Calling on support
- IRON open options positions more than six times avg.
- Stock has slumped since hitting eight-mo. high in Nov.
- Options traded as stock reached support zone
Disc Medicine (IRON) trades less than a half-million shares per day, on average, with proportionally light options volume. Its average open interest (OI) is around 1,100 contracts, but lately it’s been roughly six times higher—more than 7,000 contracts.
On Tuesday, more than 70% of that total was sitting in one contract, the March $60 calls:

Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
One thing that makes these options interesting—aside from the fact that they represent more than 10 times the OI of any other contract—is when they traded.
Over the past several days, IRON pulled back to its lowest levels since early November, when it gapped higher after receiving positive news from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about one of its drug therapies. This also happens to be the approximate level of the low it gapped below last April after releasing clinical trial results, and which later functioned as resistance for the stock’s highs as it consolidated in September-October:

Source: Power E*TRADE. (For illustrative purposes. Not a recommendation.)
Almost all of the OI in the March $60 calls accrued over the course of three trading days, January 23-27, when the stock initially dipped below its early November lows—back into the support-resistance zone.
While it’s impossible to know whether the trader or traders who initiated the March $60 call positions were bullish (if they bought the options) or bearish (if they sold them), some traders favoring the bullish interpretation would point to the timing of the trades. The fact that they occurred as the stock was testing support—and was more than $40 below the average Street price target of $96.081—may have made the idea of a potential rebound at least worthy of consideration.
Note: IRON is currently scheduled to release earnings in the second half of March.
Market Mover Update: The market’s recent volatility in the wake of the DeepSeek and tariff stories may be indicative of the challenges it will face in the first half of the year, according to Morgan Stanley & Co. strategists.2 Enthusiasm about Fed rate cuts and a clean election outcome last year may have made investors “complacent” about the risks posed by tariffs and immigration policy, they argue, while DeepSeek introduced uncertainty about US dominance in the AI space.
The result, the analysts say, could be a rangebound stock market over the next three to six months, with an S&P 500 that struggles to push above its December-January highs (around 6,100) before gaining traction in the second half of the year. In such an environment, the strategists favor consumer services over goods, and prefer financials and other domestically-oriented businesses with limited exposure to tariff risks.
Today’s numbers include (all times ET): mortgage applications (7 a.m.), ADP Private Employment Report (8:15 a.m.), international trade in goods and services (8:30 a.m.), S&P Global Services PMI (9:45 a.m.), ISM Services Index (10 a.m.), EIA Petroleum Status Report (10:30 a.m.).
Today’s earnings include: Disney (DIS), Fiserv (FI), Novo-Nordisk (NVO), Toyota (TM), Uber (UBER), Arm (ARM), Ford (F), MicroStrategy (MSTR), O’Reilly Automotive (ORLY), Impinj (PI), Qualcomm (QCOM), Quantum (QMCO), Silicon Motion (SIMO), Viking Therapeutics (VKTX).
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1 TipRanks. Disc Medicine (IRON) Stock Forecast & Price Target. 2/4/25.
2 MorganStanley.com. Tariffs and Tech Challenge Stocks. 2/3/25.