Two sides to every trade

Medical tech company MiniMed’s (MMED) call volume was nearly 24% times average on Monday morning, placing it toward the top of the LiveAction scan for unusual call activity:

One option accounted for almost all of the volume—the December $20 call, which traded around 2,500 contracts, and also had the second-highest open interest (OI) of any MMED option (4,000 of the 4,100 contracts traded last Thursday):

The stock was trading solidly higher early Monday—up roughly 2.5% to $17.94—which could have supported a bullish interpretation of the call activity, since traders were buying out-of-the-money (OTM) calls with approximately six weeks to go before the company’s next (early-December) earnings announcement.

However, experienced traders tend to keep in mind that there are sellers on the other side of every buy, which implies there are potentially traders with bearish rather than bullish outlooks on the stock.

Tuesday’s OI should provide some useful context on Monday’s activity, since it will show whether traders were opening new positions in the $20 calls (if OI is higher) or liquidating existing ones (if OI is lower). If traders were getting out of the options, it would potentially suggest less conviction in their outlook.

Although MMED was up a little more than 65% from its late-May all-time low on Monday, it was still down significantly from the record high it hit after its last earnings release, had retraced more than half of its summer rally, and was a little lower than where it closed on its first day of trading in March:

In these situations, it’s helpful to consider the implications of both sides of a trade: Did a bullish large trader initiate the position by purchasing OTM calls, or did a bearish trader short them expecting further downside—or, at least, the absence of a rally big enough to push the calls into the money? It’s also possible someone long MMED stock shorted the calls to collect premium, effectively using the options as an alternative exit strategy for the stock position.

While a bullish interpretation may seem to carry greater weight, given the stock has pulled back significantly and is relatively close to the call’s strike price, it’s impossible to dismiss the opposite scenario out of hand.

Note: MMED is currently scheduled to release earnings in early December. Morgan Stanley & Co. strategists have an Overweight rating on the stock.¹

Today’s numbers include (all times ET): Housing Starts and Permits (8:30 a.m.), Pending Home Sales Index (10 a.m.).

Today’s earnings include: General Electric (GE), General Motors (GM), Halliburton (HAL), Hasbro (HAS), Keycorp (KEY), Netflix (NFLX), Northrop Grumman (NOC), Synchrony Financial (SYF), United Airlines (UAL), Viking Therapeutics (VKTX), Weatherford (WFRD).

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¹ MorganStanley.com. MiniMed Group: Overview. 10/19/26.