Huge Bullish Dollar ETF Call Volume Bet

There was a major trade Tuesday morning in the December 22 Calls for the PowerShares US Dollar Index Bullish Fund UUP. The trader bought 14,777 contracts at 12 cents for the $22 strike set to expire in December of this year. The volume accounts for roughly 38 percent of the call volume as of 2:30PM EDT.  A similar transaction was noted by Bloomberg back in 2011 when a trader sold 25,000 contacts of the PowerShares DB Dollar Index Bearish Fund UDN which accounted for nearly 100 percent of total volume as part of a bearish straddle used to hedge against what was, at the time, an expecter period of limited volatility.  

The trade is raising eyebrows today as more and more people begin to question the viability of the current multi-year bull market as time winds down to the Fed (aka the Elephant In The Room) decision to end QE before raising the Federal Funds rate.  Someone out there believes that volatility is set to return and as portfolios rebalance after Q2 earnings, expect lit market volumes to swell and volatility to be front and center in many discussions.