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There’s a specific moment in options trading when everything changes.
It’s not about fundamentals. It’s not about news. It’s about a chain reaction where buying leads to more buying, and then even more buying.
I’m talking about the moment when market makers are forced to buy shares by the truckload to neutralize their risk — and that buying creates a self-fulfilling prophecy that can send stocks soaring 3-5% in minutes.
Most traders miss this because they don’t understand the mechanics. They see the move after it happens and wonder what they missed. But once you know what triggers this chain reaction, you can position yourself ahead of the explosion.
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Here’s how it works…
When heavy option volume hits and the stock starts ticking higher, market makers have to buy shares to keep their risk in check. That’s just their job — they’re managing exposure, not speculating.
But here’s where it gets interesting…
As the price goes higher, this quickly creates a chain reaction where market makers then have to buy even more shares to neutralize their newly increased risk, which pushes the stock even higher.
At that point, it becomes unstoppable momentum.
Take Rocket Lab (RKLB) on Oct. 2. My new Power Hour Stocks scanner flagged more than 27,294 option contracts traded. That meant market makers were forced to buy as many as 2,700,000 shares — but the buying didn’t stop there.
Every time the stock ticked higher, market makers needed to buy even more shares to keep the risk in check. This chain reaction powered the stock to jump 3.6% over the next 10 minutes.
And if you caught the options at the right moment? The options darn near quadrupled in just 10 minutes.
Small Moves, Big Returns
You don’t need massive stock moves to make money with this setup. A 3% move in the underlying can double or triple your options position — sometimes more.
Lumentum Holdings (LITE) on Sept. 24 is a perfect example. At 9:35 a.m., our scanner flagged 12,523 option contracts traded. Market makers had to buy shares while the price was still relatively cheap, which pushed the price 3.3% higher over the next 14 minutes.
That 3.3% stock move resulted in a 126% return on the options.
Or look at Strategy (MSTR) on Oct. 15. At 10:01 a.m., our scanner flagged 15,277 option contracts traded, meaning market makers were liable for north of 1,500,000 shares.
As the stock started to tick higher, they had to gobble up more shares to neutralize their risk, which pushed the price about 2.5% higher over the next 11 minutes.
This isn’t speculation or guessing. It’s market makers being forced to manage their risk according to specific parameters, creating predictable buying patterns you can track and trade.
The key is catching these setups as they develop — not after the move is already over. When you see heavy option volume combined with rising prices, you’re watching the chain reaction begin. That’s your window.
Order Flow:
This is for informational and educational purposes only. These are not official alerts issued by Lance, but rather some interesting orders picked by the team at Lance Ippolito Trading.
When you look at these plays, always take the market maker move into consideration.
You can be right on the direction but still lose money if the stock doesn’t move enough. That’s where the market maker move comes in clutch.
With puts, they’re often downside hedges in case a stock tanks, especially around earnings. The further out of the money they are, the more likely they are to be hedges.
Also be sure and check when the company’s earnings date is because many of the plays we post here are centered around earnings!
If a stock is really expensive, consider a spread to lower the cost.
And finally, always remember the golden rule when it comes to buying calls: Buy dips, sell rips — and don’t chase!
If a stock’s moved a ton already today, maybe wait for a pullback.
There is inherent risk in trading. Trade at your own risk.
Note: If no date is listed after the month, it’s the monthly expiration (third Friday).
The team at Lance Ippolito Trading
Lance doesn’t want the CCP spying on him, so you’ll never find him on TikTok. Same goes for other social media sites, which are filled with impersonators, scammers and crypto bros.
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*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.
P.S. Are We Really in an AI Bubble?
Are we really in an AI bubble, as one of the market’s legends recently said?
Or is that just noise?
Well, the truth is no matter what happens next, there will also be an opportunity hiding somewhere.
You just need to know where to look…
And these days…
I’ve been looking more at the opening bell… for good reason.
You see, there’s a weird market anomaly that has been defying the doom and gloom headlines…
And sending stocks soaring… not in weeks or days…
But right in the first trading hour every day.
Tapping this anomaly helped deliver home runs like…
Now, there were smaller winners and those that didn’t work. And I won’t make reckless guarantees about the stock market…
But regardless of whether we’re in a bubble or not…
I believe this anomaly will keep sending stocks on explosive runs right in the first trading hour…
If you’d like to leverage it nonstop…
We develop tools and strategies to the best of our ability but no one can guarantee the future. There is always a risk of loss when trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Stated results are from live tracked signals from 8/27/26 to 10/25/2026. The win rate has been 74.4% on the options, with an average return on winners of 128% and an average return on winners and losers of 81.2% over a 30-60 minute average hold time.
