They were call spreads so technically is like buying the put spread but its no big deal. All of those trades were crossed bye one firm to itself to move them to different accounts
time to start buying airline puts ? of course the SEC "cannot" solve this crime...we'll never know who bought them. SEC likely ordered to stand down.
My guess is the calls were bought long before when they were OTM and when the market rallied and they went ITM, they were held instead of sold. Nobody would sell those calls if they wanted to hide the transaction. Selling a strike that is very illiquid with no open interest is the EASIEST way to get noticed. If you want to hide, you need to pick the most liquid and most actively traded stock in the most actively traded index.
SPX was at 770 about 5 years ago. Also, you can buy leaps 15 years out if you want. All you have to do is request a quote from the floor.
The SPY does not have a 700 call (that I see) The SPX has the following on the PUT side: 660 = 36K 680 = 36K 700= 36K 720 = 67K That looks like spreads to me. I don't buy the doom and gloom. It rarely happens but it is fun to watch everyone run around thinking the sky is falling. I think we are about to head back up.
She could be sending an implicit message to the anyone planning anything that if you do something before the election you will have to deal with 4 (or more) years of the war mongering attitude of the Rep's. Don't do anything and they may get an administration that may be more sympathetic to their concerns. At least that's what I thought.