Senseonics Shorts Get Burned And Options Traders Fan The Flames

Senseonics Holdings Inc. SENS was trading up over 47% Friday afternoon on massive bullish volume.

By midafternoon over 157 million shares of Senseonics had changed hands compared to the average of just over 27 million shares. Senseonics is also a heavily shorted stock with 72.56 million, or 17.5%, of its 317.27 million share float held short.

On Friday a short squeeze took place and shares shot up to the $3 level and a number of options traders loaded the boat with call contracts and bet over $664,855 shares of Senseonics are going higher. A few options traders even believe the stock could reach as high as $10.00 by January 2023.

Following Thursday's market close, the company announced results of the PROMISE study demonstrating strong accuracy of 180-day CGM sensor.

Why It’s Important: When a sweep order occurs, it indicates the trader wanted to get into a position quickly and is anticipating an imminent large move in stock price. A sweeper pays market price for the call option instead of placing a bid, which sweeps the order book of multiple exchanges to fill the order immediately.

These types of call option orders are usually made by institutions, and retail investors can find watching for sweepers useful because it indicates “smart money” has entered into a position.

The Senseonics Option Trades: Below is a look at the notable options alerts, courtesy of Benzinga Pro:

• At 9:34 a.m., Friday a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 3667 Senseonics options with a strike price of $10 expiring on Jan. 20, 2023. The trade represented a $348,365 bullish bet for which the trader paid 95 cents per option contract.
• At 9:44 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 787 Senseonics options with a strike price of $2.50 expiring on June 18. The trade represented a $39,350 bullish bet for which the trader paid 50 cents per option contract.
• At 10:34 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 1084 Senseonics options with a strike price of $7 expiring on Jan. 21, 2022. The trade represented a $65,040 bullish bet for which the trader paid 60 cents per option contract.
• At 10:57 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 825 Senseonics options with a strike price of $10 expiring on Jan. 20, 2023. The trade represented a $82,500 bullish bet for which the trader paid $1.00 per option contract.
• At 11:13 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 1005 Senseonics options with a strike price of $3 expiring on July 16. The trade represented a $80,400 bullish bet for which the trader paid 80 cents per option contract.
• At 11:15 a.m., a trader executed a call sweep, near the ask, of 1230 Senseonics options with a strike price of $5 expiring on July 16. The trade represented a $49,200 bullish bet for which the trader paid 40 cents per option contract.

SENS Price Action: Shares of Senseonics were trading up 41% to $2.88 at publication time.