Prices as of 10:30 ET, Friday 16 October 2026. Options volume is the live session tape at the same moment. Everything below moves continuously and is sourced.
The single-name options tape this morning is not where the index move is. Three Tesla strikes and two Apple strikes account for the whole Magnificent group's presence on the most-active contract list, every one of them a call struck at or above spot and expiring today — while the AI and semiconductor complex is the thing actually falling.
| Ticker | Change | Price | Share volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| AAPL | +2.40 (+0.70%) | 344.40 | 18.18M |
| TSLA | +1.71 (+0.47%) | 364.15 | 21.60M |
| NVDA | +0.18 (+0.08%) | 217.41 | 28.47M |
| AMZN | −1.45 (−0.57%) | 253.31 | 7.56M |
| MSFT | −4.55 (−0.84%) | 534.89 | 5.28M |
| GOOGL | −3.96 (−1.13%) | 345.26 | 5.62M |
| META | −14.94 (−2.03%) | 721.78 | 3.74M |
| AVGO | −7.07 (−2.05%) | 337.26 | 4.87M |
| AMD | −18.70 (−3.33%) | 543.53 | 5.01M |
Apple is the notable one on price: at $344.40 it is trading within four dollars of its 52-week high of $348.15, on a morning when the rest of large-cap tech is red.
Five Magnificent-group contracts made the most-active list. All five are calls. All five expire today. The right-hand column is the one worth reading — volume against existing open interest tells you whether this is new money or old positions being closed.
| Contract | Last | Volume | Open interest | Vol ÷ OI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA 370 call | 2.62 | 78,612 | 10,174 | 7.7× |
| TSLA 380 call | 0.44 | 73,593 | 21,018 | 3.5× |
| TSLA 375 call | 1.03 | 63,747 | 12,838 | 5.0× |
| AAPL 350 call | 0.13 | 52,966 | 52,718 | 1.0× |
| AAPL 345 call | 1.17 | 52,804 | 32,261 | 1.6× |
Roughly 216,000 Tesla contracts across three strikes, every one of them above a $364.15 spot, and every one turning over several times the open interest that existed before the bell. That is not hedging and it is not position maintenance. It is same-day directional buying, concentrated in a twenty-dollar band.
The Apple pair is a different shape. Volume roughly equals open interest at the 350 strike, which is what positioning into a level looks like rather than a stampede — and 350 is the round number just above that 52-week high.
Nvidia. It is the largest options market in the group by a distance — roughly 2.98 million contracts traded on Thursday against 16.06 million open interest — and this morning not one Nvidia strike appears among the most active contracts. The stock is almost exactly unchanged at +0.08%, on the heaviest share volume in the group at 28.47 million.
Heavy shares, flat price, no contract concentration. Whatever conviction is in the market today is not being expressed there.
The damage is in the AI and semiconductor complex, not the index. AMD is off 3.33%, Broadcom 2.05% and Meta 2.03%, against a Dow that is up 0.42%. The Nasdaq Composite is down 0.78% at 26,503.58 while the S&P 500 is close to flat at 7,734.30, off 0.13%, and the Russell 2000 is down 0.17% at 2,762.43.
That split has been the pattern all week. Thursday closed with the Dow up 556.21 points, or 1.08%, at 52,177.69 while the Nasdaq managed just +0.08% — a rotation out of technology and into defensives as Treasury yields fell and concerns around AI debt financing moved in and out of focus. The 10-year sits at 5.08% this morning, gold at $4,207.80, up 0.90%, and crude at $95.53, down 1.01%.
The macro backdrop is Wednesday's inflation print: prices rose 3.7% on an annualised basis in September against the 3.6% economists expected.
Tesla unveiled a redesigned Roadster on Thursday at SpaceX's test facility, the demo having slipped from 1 October because of high winds. The car uses SpaceX-developed thrusters and was shown jumping and turning in mid-air. Production is not expected before 2028.
On the numbers it is close to immaterial: the capped 1,000-unit Founders Series would produce around $250 million of revenue against a company valued near $1.5 trillion. Coverage of the stock reaction has been contradictory across outlets; the tape itself has Tesla up 0.47% as of 10:30 ET, having touched $370.58 earlier.
Two things are worth holding alongside the call volume. Tesla reports earnings on 21 October, which is five days away and is the larger scheduled event by some margin. And the historical pattern around Tesla product reveals runs the other way: shares fell about 6% after the 2019 Cybertruck unveiling and 8.3% after the Cybercab in October 2024.
Three observations. None of them is a recommendation.
Volume against open interest is the more honest number. A big contract-volume figure on its own says a strike is busy. Volume at several multiples of the open interest that existed this morning says the position did not exist yesterday. Those are different facts, and only the second one tells you something arrived today.
A same-day call struck above spot is a decaying asset with a deadline. The TSLA 380 call is marked at $0.44 and is already down 46% on the session while the underlying is up. On expiry day the clock is a larger input than direction, and a one-cent-wide quote on a forty-cent contract is a meaningful share of the premium before anything moves.
A flat index is hiding a wide dispersion. The S&P is down 0.13% while constituents inside it range from Apple at +0.70% to AMD at −3.33%. For anyone working single names, the index print is the least informative number on the screen this morning.
Sources
Yahoo Finance — Mag 8 quote comparison, prices and session volume
Yahoo Finance — most active stock options by contract volume
TheStreet — Stock Market Today (Oct. 16, 2026)
CNBC — market live updates, Thursday close
Yahoo Finance — Dow, S&P 500 rise, Nasdaq trims losses as Treasury yields sink
Futu — NVIDIA options volume and open interest, 15 October
Yahoo Finance — Tesla Roadster reveal, production timing and prior reveal reactions
More from us: automated options trading guides · what changes on expiry day · Options Sniper