[jeffbee]

But lottery-ticket options trading is done all the time. The fact that the options expire the next day is part of the strategy (because before that, the options cost more). $20k might sound like a big stake but you don't know the size of the trader's portfolio, it might be 0.01% of it, and they didn't stand to lose the whole thing necessarily.

[trowawee]

All true in the abstract. But doing it the day before an acquisition is always gonna earn you a door knock, even if you're a serial gambler.

[ra7]

Yeah, this is not that suspicious IMO. The trade was opened yesterday when Splunk was at $119. They just needed a 7% gain by Friday to be profitable on their $127 calls. Traders make those kind of gambles all the time.

[TuringNYC]

Not at this volume. Also, typically they do it for indices and typically based on some event (e.g., rate announcement), not on a heels of an unknown acquisition.