Netflix (NFLX) options memo

NFLX Down 32.7% From 52-Week High as Pin Levels Cluster $3–$10 Above Spot

The Read

NFLX is up 5.34% today at $78.17.

Options traders lean neutral into 2026-08-14, and neutral further out.

A move through $73.36 would change how dealers hedge this stock.

Key numbers

• Spot: $78.17
• Lean: conflicted
• Nearest expiry: Fri 9/11
• Implied move: 1.8%
• ATM implied volatility: 34.9%
• Max pain: $79.00
• Pin strike: $80.00
• Gamma flip: $79.88
• Dealer positioning: SHORT GAMMA
• Call wall: $80.00
• Put wall: $80.00
• Put/call open interest: 0.344

Signals

• Options: Pin levels across all expiries — $93 (3-day), $100 (10-day), $100 (24-day), $100 (44-day) — sit $3 to $10 above spot at $90.24, implying market-makers are structurally hedged to defend upside strikes by selling into rallies and supporting dips toward those levels. PCR of 0.331 on the 3-day expiry indicates call-heavy positioning at the near term, while the 44-day PCR of 0.981 approaches put/call parity — suggesting the medium-term structure is more balanced, raising the relative cost of outright long premium versus defined-risk spreads.
• Price action: Netflix Inc. trades at $90.24, down 32.7% from its 52-week high, with WTD -2.2%, MTD -2.0%, and YTD -0.82%, underperforming SPY by 5.9 points and QQQ by 10.6 points. FTDs registered 107,745 shares at settlement — 5.2x the 10-period average — implying short-side locate stress or aggressive settlement failures that historically precede either a squeeze or sustained directional pressure depending on prevailing borrow cost.
• Fundamentals: Netflix Inc. trades at a P/E of 28.7 with a 28.5% net margin, sitting below peer outliers WBD (93x), LYV (74x), TKO (158x), and FWONA (39x), but above DIS (14.7x). The most recent earnings print missed by 10.2%, triggering a -9.72% reaction with a subsequent 5-day post-drift of -5.0% — the second consecutive post-earnings negative drift — implying the market is applying a higher discount rate to forward estimates rather than pricing in multiple expansion.
• News: Netflix Inc. generated 35 news items over 14 days, with a max impact score of 9. The top-scoring headline explicitly frames the April earnings decline as 'unfair punishment,' a framing that typically surfaces when buy-side participants are building a re-rating narrative post-selloff. Concurrent Paramount streaming coverage adds sector-level context, implying narrative flow is tilted toward streaming fundamentals reassessment rather than company-specific deterioration.