INTC — Options + Dark Pool, SIMPLE VIEW (pre-earnings snapshot)

Captured: Wed Oct 28, 2026, ~05:44 CT (pre-market), America/Chicago Event: Intel Q3 2026 earnings Thu Oct 29, 2026 after close (call 5:00pm ET). First reaction session: Fri Oct 30 — which is also the front options expiry. Reference price: $93.74 close, Tue Oct 27, 2026 (+3.61% on the day; Finnhub). Pre-market Oct 28: $95.01 (+1.36%) as of 05:36 ET (Finnhub) — indicative only. Data as-of: Options = Tue Oct 27, 2026 session (latest completed session; Oct 28 session has not traded yet). Dark pool = Tue Oct 27, 2026 session (ChartExchange) + % history to Oct 19.

ONE-LINE SUMMARY: Positioning into the print is upside speculation, not defensive hedging — strongest single evidence: Oct 27 option volume ran call-heavy at a 0.41 put/call ratio (325,074 calls vs 133,470 puts), well below the ~0.53–0.59 recent norm, with the earnings expiry (Oct 30) alone taking 45.7% of all volume and the $100 call the single most-traded contract — while total open interest stays near-balanced (P/C 0.96), i.e. the flow is bullish even though the book is hedged both ways.

1 · OPTIONS — SIMPLE VIEW

Calls vs puts, plain numbers (session: Tue Oct 27, 2026)

• Sources: Stocknear expiry-by-expiry table "as of October 27, 2026" (summed across all 18 expiries — sums reproduce the totals exactly); cross-confirmed by OptionVisualizer snapshot (options volume 458,544; 70.89% calls / 29.11% puts; P/C 0.411) and AlphaQuery 2026-10-27 (P/C open interest 0.9575; P/C volume shown as 0.5289 there — a conflicting universe/read, held out of the headline; the two agreeing sources are used).
• In plain words: on Tuesday, for every 10 call contracts traded, only ~4 puts traded. But the standing book (open interest) is almost 50/50 — 3.38M calls vs 3.23M puts. Translation: the existing position stock is balanced/hedged; the new money on the day leaned calls.

Put/call ratio vs its norm

• Volume P/C 0.41 (Oct 27) vs a recent norm of ~0.53 (MetisTrades, as of Fri Oct 23 close: "put/call volume ratio came in at 0.53, a bit below its 7-day average of 0.59"). So Tuesday was materially more call-heavy than the already call-leaning recent average — notable because it happened on an up day (+3.61%) two sessions before earnings.
• OI P/C 0.96 — essentially neutral standing positioning (Stocknear headline itself labels 0.96 a slight bullish bias in OI). One secondary read (MetisTrades, Oct 25) claimed put OI per call of 1.07 vs a 14-day average of 0.88; that conflicts with the full-chain total of 0.96 and could not be reconciled to a stated expiry universe — held as UNVERIFIED and not used.

The walls (as of Oct 27, 15:40 ET — FlashAlpha, gamma-based)

• Corroboration from volume: in the Oct 30 expiry, the $100 call was the highest-volume call (10,410 contracts) and the $85 put the highest-volume put (6,098), followed by the $80 put (5,585) (Stockscan chain, Oct 27). Note the deep legacy put OI at very low strikes ($15–$35, from the pre-rally era) is large in raw OI counts but is not a live "wall" into this print — the gamma-based walls above are the operative levels.

Expiry concentration — where the money sits around the print

By volume, Oct 27 (Stocknear):

• The first three expiries (Oct 30 + Nov 6 + Nov 13) took 55.3% of Tuesday's volume — positioning is concentrated on the print itself, not spread out.
• Oct 30 expiry alone, from Stockscan's chain (a second, slightly different cut): 152,281 contracts — 107,458 calls / 44,823 puts, P/C 0.42 — same direction and roughly the same split as Stocknear's 209,490 for that expiry; the absolute totals differ between the two aggregators (different capture times/universes). Direction is consistent; treat Stocknear as the headline series.
• By open interest, the picture flips: Oct 30 holds only 438,554 contracts = 6.6% of total OI. The standing book lives further out — Jan 15, 2027: 1,339,674 (20.3%), Dec 18, 2026: 1,054,860 (16.0%), Nov 20, 2026: 928,142 (14.0%); expiries in 2027 and later hold ~60% of all OI. Read: the trade is about tomorrow; the book is longer-dated and two-sided.

IV and the implied move into the print

• 30-day IV (mean): 64.46% for 2026-10-27 (AlphaQuery; calls 63.83% / puts 65.09% — put IV only ~1.3 pts over call IV, i.e. no panic skew at the 30-day tenor; put-call IV ratio 1.0197).
• ATM IV at the front: 85.9% (FlashAlpha, Oct 27 15:40 ET; HV20 55.0%) and Oct 30 expiry IV 116.44% (Stocknear) — the event premium is concentrated in the earnings expiry, as expected.
• Implied move for the earnings expiry (published straddle-based reads, labelled):
• ±10.56% (±$9.90) — Stocknear expected move for the Oct 30 expiry, as of Oct 27 (on $93.74: roughly $83.84–$103.64).
• 12.98% implied move — Benzinga earnings-volatility watch via TradingView (published ~Oct 26–27, reputable secondary).
• ~11% — MarketBeat (published Oct 27).
• (An older ±9% / ~$8.50 estimate was anchored to the Oct 21 close of $92.96 — stale anchor, noted for completeness, not used.)
• Working range to use: options are pricing roughly a ±10.5%–13% move on the print — versus INTC's last-eight-prints average reaction of ~9.3% (range −17% to +24%; preview source, secondary).

Unusual flow — individually dated, staleness-checked

Included (Oct 27, 2026 only — today, Oct 28, has not traded yet):

1. Oct 27, 08:00 UTC — GammaRips (dated signal): "INTC BULL $95C Nov 20 '26" — premium concentration flagged in far out-of-the-money November 20 calls (the $95 call) with spot referenced at $90.47 (Monday's close). Bullish, post-print horizon (Nov 20), not earnings-week lottery.
2. Oct 27, 12:54 PM ET — HistoricalOptionData (intraday tape read): near-the-money (delta 40–60) flow ran $35.38M in calls (80.5%) vs $8.58M in puts (19.5%) — 48,081 call contracts vs 11,748 put contracts — tagged bullish, and explicitly noted as diverging from bearish/oversold technicals.

Excluded as stale/undated (per spec §7):

• Benzinga/Nasdaq "whales bearish — 44 trades, $3.20M puts vs $0.94M calls, strikes $15–$55" — page undated in fetch (crawl ~Oct 25) and the strike corridor ($15–$55) is legacy positioning, not earnings positioning. Excluded.
• Tiger Brokers "options market statistics" item (P/C 0.33, 0.88M volume) — dated to an older Apple-partnership news cycle. Excluded.
• Benzinga bullish 8-trade item ($434K calls) — undated crawl (~Oct 25), no session date. Excluded.
• Oct 28 flow: none sourced — capture is pre-market; the session has not traded. Marked as a gap, not filled.

2 · DARK POOL — REAL PRINTS ONLY

Source: ChartExchange (FINRA off-exchange/TRF-reported volume). Lag note: Oct 27 is the latest completed session as of this Oct 28 pre-market capture. FINRA's own security-level ATS weekly files lag further (weeks) and were not used; MobyTick's weekly report (Oct 24, covering Oct 19–23) does not include INTC in its covered ticker list — no MobyTick INTC figures exist for last week. Modelled/simulated "radar" data was not used anywhere in this section.

Latest session — Tue Oct 27, 2026

• 30-day average off-exchange share: 51.42% — Oct 27 ran below its own average.
• Venue split of the lit side (Oct 27): Nasdaq GSM 26.46% of total volume, NYSE Arca 8.37%, Cboe EDGX 4.33%, Cboe BZX 3.44%, IEX 3.00% (ChartExchange).

Recent sessions — off-exchange share (%, ChartExchange history)

(Absolute dark volumes for sessions before Oct 27 were not published in the fetched history table — percentages only; not estimated.)

Largest prints

• UNVERIFIED for Oct 26–27: ChartExchange's individual-print table did not render in the text fetch, and no reputable source published INTC's largest individual dark prints for the last two sessions. Not filled in.
• Only dated item found (weak provenance — a social repost of a dark-pool feed, ~Oct 22, 2026): a 40,000-share print at $87.36 (~$3.49M), described as crossing near the ask. Single print, secondary/social sourcing — context only, not evidence.

Accumulation / distribution read — with limits

• Read: neutral-to-mildly constructive, low conviction. The off-exchange share eased into the print (54.51% Fri → 52.44% Mon → 49.19% Tue) while the stock rose +3.61% on Tuesday on 90.5M total shares — i.e. there is no sign of a dark-pool distribution surge ahead of earnings; the heavier off-exchange days last week coincided with the stock's slide, not with strength. But: off-exchange volume mixes institutional crossing, market-maker internalisation and wholesaler flow, and prints alone do not prove direction (no reliable buy/sell side classification at this source). This read says "no evidence of offloading," not "proven accumulation."

3 · What this means going into the print (plain view)

• The bet is on the event, the hedge is in the book. Tuesday's flow was call-heavy (0.41) and concentrated in the Oct 30 expiry (45.7% of volume), with extra bullish premium in Nov 20 $95 calls — upside speculation. The standing book is balanced (OI P/C 0.96) with the gamma walls at $80 (put) / $100 (call) and spot sitting on the $93.82 gamma flip — so a big move either way can run once it clears the flip.
• Priced move: ~±10.5%–13% (≈ $84–$104 on the low read, wider on the high read) — bigger than INTC's ~9.3% average print reaction. Premium is rich at the front (Oct 30 IV 116%).
• Dark pool: ~half the volume is off-exchange as usual; the share fell into the print — no distribution alarm.
• Falsifier for the "upside speculation" read: if Oct 28's session prints a volume P/C back above ~0.6 with put OI building in the Oct 30 expiry, the read flips to hedging into the print. (Oct 28 data not yet available at capture.)

Gaps / UNVERIFIED (stated, not filled)

1. Oct 28 options flow and volume — session had not traded at capture (pre-market). UNVERIFIED/none.
2. Largest individual dark-pool prints, Oct 26–27 — not published in an accessible reputable source at capture. UNVERIFIED.
3. MetisTrades put-OI ratio of 1.07 — conflicts with the full-chain 0.96; universe unstated. UNVERIFIED, excluded from the verdict.
4. AlphaQuery volume P/C of 0.5289 — conflicts with the Stocknear/OptionVisualizer-agreed 0.41 (identical 458,544 total). The agreed figure is used; the conflict is disclosed here.
5. INTC-specific MobyTick dark-pool levels — INTC is not in MobyTick's covered set for the Oct 19–23 week. Gap stated; no substitute invented.

Sources (all accessed Wed Oct 28, 2026, ~05:44 CT)

• Stocknear — INTC options by expiry (as of Oct 27, 2026) and OI-by-strike totals: stocknear.com/stocks/INTC/options ; stocknear.com/stocks/INTC/options/oi
• OptionVisualizer — INTC snapshot (options volume 458,544; % call 70.89%; max pain $93): optionvisualizer.com/ticker/INTC
• AlphaQuery — INTC 30-day IV mean + put/call ratios, 2026-10-27: alphaquery.com/stock/INTC/volatility-option-statistics/30-day/iv-mean
• FlashAlpha — INTC key levels, Oct 27, 2026 15:40 ET (call wall $100, put wall $80, gamma flip $93.82, ATM IV 85.9%): flashalpha.com/stock/intc
• Stockscan — INTC Oct 30, 2026 chain (most-active strikes): stockscan.io/stocks/INTC/option-chain
• GammaRips — INTC flow signal, published 2026-10-27: gammarips.com/signals/INTC
• HistoricalOptionData — INTC trading analysis, 10/27/2026 12:54 PM: historicaloptiondata.com/tag/intc/
• MetisTrades — INTC options outlook (dated Oct 25, 2026; norms + ranges, labelled secondary): metistrades.com/blog/options-analysis/intc-25oct2026
• TradingView/Benzinga — earnings volatility watch (Intel implied move 12.98%): tradingview.com/news/benzinga:9d381e14c094b
• MarketBeat — Intel implied move ~11% (published Oct 27): marketbeat.com
• ChartExchange — INTC exchange volume + dark pool summary/history (Oct 27 session): chartexchange.com/symbol/nasdaq-intc/exchange-volume/
• Finnhub (via finance search) — INTC close $93.74 on Oct 27; pre-market $95.01 Oct 28 05:36 ET
• MobyTick — Weekly Dark Pool Report, Oct 26–30, 2026 edition (published Oct 24): INTC not covered (gap noted)

Research and education — not personalised buy/sell advice.