Chipotle Puts Swell to 8 Times Average as Traders Position for Slide

Options trading in Chipotle jumped to more than eight times its monthly average Tuesday, with 240,000 puts changing hands against fewer than 17,000 calls. Of $8 million in put premiums, at least $2 million came from a single position: the purchase of 56,000 puts struck at 25 for Nov. 6 expiry, paired with a sale of the same number of 22.5-strike puts expiring mid-December.

That trade suggests a seller rolling down and out as the first strike nears, according to data from Volland, an options positioning platform. At around 11:30 a.m. ET, a separate buyer picked up 7,500 puts struck at 28 expiring Nov. 20, a $1.1 million position that pays only if Chipotle falls another 5% over the next 3.5 weeks.

Chipotle reports earnings Tuesday after the close, alongside Microsoft, Google, T-Mobile and Ford. Jason DeLorenzo, founder and owner at Volland, said the activity lines up with that calendar: "All of these look like earnings plays and our data show customers generally bearish."

The $27 level sits at the shoulder line of a head and shoulders pattern dating to January 2021. DeLorenzo noted that the last time Chipotle's implied move before earnings was this low was July 2025, and the stock then dropped sharply.