Day-trader obsession with hated stocks takes over options market By Katherine Greifeld Bloomberg,Updated January 27, 2021, 9:59 a.m. Email to a Friend (Bloomberg) -- The Reddit-led hunt for heavily shorted stocks is migrating to the options market. The most-hated stocks have scorched the naysayers, with a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. basket set for its best month since at least 2008. Thatâs been accompanied by a âdramatic shiftâ in options activity toward heavily-shorted securities such as GameStop Corp., BlackBerry Ltd. and Palantir Technologies Inc., according to Barclays Plc analysts. Frenzied buying of short-dated call contracts has exacerbated the pain for the bears. Normally dealers selling the bullish options buy the underlying stock as a hedge. With enough volume -- and thereâs been plenty -- that can drive the stocks higher, making the calls in-the-money. While retail traders had previously favored large-cap tech stocks, the pivot into smaller companies has amplified their heft, the Barclays analysts wrote.