Unusual Options Activity (UOA)

Unusual Options Activity (UOA) is when options—contracts that give you the right to buy or sell a stock at a set price—trade in much larger volumes or at prices that stand out from normal patterns. You'll see traders and analysts watching for UOA because it often signals that someone with inside knowledge or a strong conviction is making a big bet on a stock's next move. It matters because these big, unusual trades can hint at upcoming price swings before they happen. For example, if millions of call options (bets that a stock will rise) suddenly trade on TechCorp when nothing newsworthy happened, that spike in activity might catch investors' attention as a potential signal worth investigating.