🕵️ GOOGL, MO, and INTC: A tale of monster earnings moves 📈

[Image] Happy Friday! Welcome back for a recap of a wild week in the world of smart money! In today’s Dark Money Trades rundown: - 📈 Earnings Week: Smart-money’s major movers - 💰 Recap of 2 interesting smart money bets from this week - 🔫 Ben’s Bullets in Review: How 3 of my big ideas for the week played out Read time: 3 minutes 🚀 Dark Money Scoop: Smart Money’s Major Earnings Winners 🧠Image source: Midjourney To round out this week, we’re gonna take a look at some of the most impressive earnings bets… And a lesson in how trading tech can help find incredible, smart money opportunities. Let’s get into it! On Tuesday afternoon, this interesting smart-money bet showed up on my scanner: GOOGL had earnings this week, during after-market hours on Tuesday. But a few hours before the close… Someone put $28,700 into the GOOGL 10/27/23 $128 PUTS, at an average price of $0.58. After earnings were released, GOOGL dropped big-time at Wednesday’s market open… And the 10/27/23 $128 puts hit a high of $3.25 later that day, for a peak potential move of 460.34%. 🤯 Onto the next one… A new smart-money bet hit my unusual options scanner on Wednesday afternoon: That’s Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO), and this scanner hit came in at 3:14pm on Wednesday… Less than 50 minutes before the market closed… Where someone put $39,410 into the MO 10/27/23 $42.50 PUTS, at an average price of $0.38. MO released their earnings on Thursday morning before the market opened, and from then on, MO tanked hard through the rest of the day. After such a big drop, these 10/27/23 $42.50 puts went on to reach a high of $3.31 yesterday… For a peak potential move of 771.05% in only 24 hours! 💥 Man… I hope you can see just how powerful options can be. Let’s move on to the last earnings move I’m highlighting today… Another smart-money bet showed up on the unusual options scanner for Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC): This hit the scanner yesterday afternoon at 3:33pm… With just 27 minutes until the market closed — on options expiring today! This trader put $196,360 into these INTC 10/27/23 $34 calls, at an average price of $0.51. INTC dropped their earnings report after the market close yesterday, and after the market opened today, INTC ripped higher! What happened to these calls? They peaked at $2.35 this morning — meaning these saw a max potential move of 360.78%! What a ride… Now, it’s quite possible that these traders had inside information on how these earnings plays would shape up… But regardless of that fact… Without trading tech like that unusual options scanner… No-one would ever know that traders are making smart money bets like this every single day. I see this kind of insider activity happen day after day… And learning to detect the patterns I see show up on this scanner has only made me a better trader. So no matter your personal approach to trading… I hope you take stock of just how powerful and important trading tech can be, if you want to improve your trading. 💰 The biggest smart-money bets of the week 💰 $386.28K bearish bet on INTC OCT 27th $32.5 puts @ $0.60 (seen on 10/23) $302.68K bullish bet on AMZN OCT 27th $133 calls @ $1.95 (seen on 10/23) How’d these big bets do? Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) fell through the week, sending these puts all the way up to $1.26, a 100%+ potential move! Hopefully this trader didn’t get too greedy, and took profits off the table while possible… As INTC rocketed back up today after a strong earnings performance, sending these puts to almost nothing on today’s expiration date! As for Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), these calls ran up to $2.52 by the end of Tuesday… Presenting a respectable max move of 29%. AMZN then proceeded to drop hard through Wednesday and Thursday… Before rallying with a great earnings move, bumping the stock price over $10! This smart money bet proved to be just a little too ambitious, with AMZN hitting a high of $130.02 on its expiration date today… Leaving a BIG move on these calls just out of the picture, proving once again that timing is everything on smart money moves. 🔫 Ben’s Bullets for the Week A follow-up on 3 interesting ideas I kept an eye on in the market this week: - The AMZN NOV 3rd $133 calls were an earnings lotto idea, and while AMZN certainly had a great earnings display, these fell by the wayside in the second half of the week. That’ll happen with lotto plays! Even with a big earnings move, AMZN didn’t pop quite enough to get these calls into the money. A good lesson on always having a plan going into your trades. - The AAPL OCT 27th $172.5 puts did make a break below $172.50, the level I was looking at, and went on to make a beautiful move from around $3.88 at Monday’s close, to a high of $7.97 yesterday – for a peak potential move of 105.41%. - The TTWO NOV 3rd $143 calls shot up 26% from Monday close into Tuesday’s open, before trailing off through the rest of the week. I’ve already said it multiple times in this email, but this feels like a perfect week to demonstrate the massive importance of taking winnings while the going is good. Now, before we close out the week… I just wanted to remind you that my trading service SPYDER Trades is currently accepting new members… But the offer will be closing down soon. And yes… it includes that awesome unusual options scanner I showed you above… That you can use to find smart money trade ideas all day long. Don't forget to [check out this offer before it ends tonight.]( Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you on Monday for the next Dark Money Trades newsletter! 📈 Ben Sturgill   66 West Flagler Street STE 900 Miami, Florida 33130 United States [Click Here to Unsubscribe]( **Our gurus teach skills others have used to make money. Any results displayed are extraordinary and are not typical and will vary from person to person. For more info read our [Earning Claims Disclosure]( About: Making money trading stocks takes time, dedication, and hard work. My goal is to teach you how I have succeeded in the market, but you may not achieve my results. Remember, there are risks involved with investing, including the potential loss of money. We are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe & high-quality online experience for all of our visitors. We understand that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. 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