Pedestrians walk outside Salesforce Tower on February 25, 2026 in San Francisco, California.
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Can this long national software nightmare end?
As semiconductor stocks fell, Nasdaq-100 After a quiet second day, software stocks seem to be picking up steam.
shares of iShares Enhanced Technology Software Sector ETF (IGV) Shares rose more than 1% on Monday, up more than 20% from their April lows and traded at their highest since January. For many, this is enough to call it a bull market.
Options traders are leaning into this, selling about 28,000 puts on the ETF on Monday, a bullish position that reflects their view that the worst is over. The number of call purchases also exceeded the number of put purchases. When a trader sells a put, they are making a moderately bullish bet. They are obligated to purchase the underlying stock at the put strike price in exchange for the premium collected.
iShares Enhanced Technology Software Sector ETF (IGV) Year-to-date
But traders have a more overtly bullish strategy.
In one of the largest options trades of the time, a trader spent $32 million to buy 7,000 in-the-money 390 strikes. microsoft Eight of the top 10 options traders for the stock were call buyers.
Fueling Monday’s optimism was a report from Bank of America analyst Tal Riani. ServiceNow The rating is Buy and the target price is $130. The stock soared 9% and options traders pounced, amassing more than 85,000 calls on the stock, with more than five times as many calls as puts trading.
Even if I fall into a predicament sales forceLabeled as “underperforming” by the BofA team, the team bounced 3.5%, with calls outnumbering puts 3-to-1.
While much of the sector remains well above last year’s highs, there is at least one clear exception. That’s cybersecurity. Amplify Cybersecurity ETF “hack” It has risen 16% since April 20, including a 3% rise on Monday. cloud strike and palo alto networks It trades at an all-time high.
Software stocks tumbled in 2026 due to concerns about so-called SaaSpocalypse, or concerns that AI agents will replace software companies. Despite recent gains, IGV is down 12% for the year.
