According to ChainCatcher, Trump posted a message about suspending tariffs on certain countries at 1:18 PM Eastern Time on Wednesday on a social media platform, triggering a 9.5% surge in the S&P 500 index.
Market data shows that before this, trading activity for certain options contracts surged. For example, according to Trade Alert, when the price of SPY, an ETF tracking the S&P 500 index, was around $501.50, approximately 5,105 SPY call options (betting on the stock price rising above $502) were traded around 1:00 PM Eastern Time, with an average price of $4.20. As the stock market surged in the afternoon, the price of these call options rose to around $42. On paper, if holding all 5,105 call options, their value would increase from approximately $2.14 million to around $21.44 million.
