Calls and Puts Verdict, October 20, 2026

Live chain grading at 10:47 AM ET. Read only research, no trades placed.

Gapped Past Entry

HAS. Premarket note had it at $100.49. Now $104.44, up 3.93% since the note and 6.04% since yesterday’s close. RSI sits at 70, the top edge of the trend window, extending into a fresh high the same morning as its earnings beat. A chase, not an entry.

GM. Premarket note had it at $76.39. Now $78.69, up 3.01% against the put thesis, right at the edge of the dead zone. The stock beat on EPS and bounced hard off its premarket low. Below the falling 50 day SMA still, but the live tape no longer agrees with the premarket read.

Rejected, and why

GE put. Trend confirmed, below a falling 50 day SMA of $329.26, RSI 44, holding most of its premarket loss (now $302.41, down 2.85% on the day). The contract chain is the problem: at the $300 strike, open interest sits at 1,381 but only 47 contracts traded today and the spread runs 8.7%. The two strikes nearer the money are effectively untraded (0 to 1 contract of volume). A single stock earnings reaction has no clean sector ETF substitute.

UNH Nov 20 $420 call. UNH is up 2.76% today to $418.12, 8.0% above its own 50 day SMA, part of a broad Healthcare rally. The $420 strike cleared spread (2.5%), open interest (3,169), IV (28.9%), delta (0.511), and theta (1.79% a day), and missed only on today’s volume, 409 against the 500 floor. The closest any contract came to a full pass today.

No new candidates from screener research. The daily screen script found zero tradeable setups again this morning.

Sector Trend Screen

Every sector except Energy traded green today. Call side leaders (Healthcare, Consumer Staples, Consumer Discretionary) all confirmed their uptrend: LLY +4.66%, UNH +2.76%, ISRG +0.46%, COST +0.26%, HD +1.73%, all above their 50 day SMA. Put side candidates mostly failed: GE was the only name below its 50 day SMA that was also down on the day (−2.85%). GM, CAT, DE, C, and SLB are all below their 50 day SMA but traded up today, bouncing against their own downtrend rather than confirming it.

A broad beat heavy earnings morning pushed the tape green across the board, and that same strength is what killed today’s option setups. The rotation underneath, Healthcare and Energy leading with previously beaten down Utilities and Real Estate catching a bid too, is the kind of session where almost every sector moves together, which makes a clean pairs trade hard to find. A session where Technology or Industrials turn red while Healthcare holds its gain would be the first real split worth trading.