JPMorgan Bears Add to Option Positions Ahead of Quarterly Bank Earnings

On Tuesday, an active buyer paid more than $2 million in premium for put options that give the ho.der the right to sell 100,000 JPMorgan shares at $210 each by Jan. 16, 2026. That's one of the 11 bearish trades posted since Sept. 30, according to exchange data tracked by moomoo.

The transactions were posted just days before the investment bank is expected to post earnings. On average, the company is expected to report Friday that earnings for the third quarter fell 7% to $4.01 a share, from  according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg as of Wednesday morning.  

JPMorgan's full year net interest income may attract market attention after Chief Operating Officer Dan Pinto said in early September that Wall Street consensus of about $90 billion was too high, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ravi Chelluri.  The bank's "net interest income views are core to its profit outlook for 2025," Chelluri wrote in a note dated Oct. 7.

For the third quarter that ended Sept. 30, analysts expect net interest income to come in at $22.7 billion, little changed from a year earlier according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.  

"Fees in asset and wealth management and investment banking should be bolstered by asset prices, with resilient trading boosted by equities," the analyst wrote. "Lending and banking pipelines are key questions, along with U.S. elections, as credit further normalizes."

The banking industry is expected to be the only industry within the financial sector to report a decline in earnings in the third quarter from a year ago, according to FactSet. Diversified banks are projected to report a 13% decline in earnings, offsetting the gains of the rest of the financial sector, according to a FactSet report dated Oct. 7.

Fund outflows into JPMorgan outpaced inflows by $42.7 million, data tracked by moomoo showed. That adds to a seventh straight net monthly outflow from the show. Data showed.

But while capital trend is showing negative and the unusual activities were dominated by bearish positions, the advance in prices of the most active options tied to the stock tell a different story.

Call options that give the holders the right to buy the stock at $220 a share attracted the biggest volume of all contracts tied to JPMorgan. More than half of that volume are in options expiring by the end of this week.  The price of the $220 calls expiring in two days jumped 65% to $1.12 as the contract inches closer to being in-the-money before expiration.

Still, the verdict isn't clear from the technical sentiment standpoint. Only five of the 15 technical indicators tracked by moomoo are showing that the stock could be overbought, and the trend may turn bearish. Nine are neutral and one is bullish.

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