Walmart's (WMT) stock dropped by nearly 4% on Wednesday on higher-than-average share and options volume. The world's largest retailer's stock has now fallen by more than 19% since hitting an all-time high of $135.15 on May 19. There are several reasons for the six-week correction. 

However, yesterday's decline is most likely due to a report from the sell-side research firm Cleveland Research, which suggested that Walmart has lowered prices to clear excess inventory, resulting in lower same-store sales. Walmart's temporary move may cause it to miss its Q2 2026 revenue guidance. 

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In yesterday's options trading, Walmart's options volume was 286,828, more than double the 30-day average, and the second-highest daily total in the past three months. 

Walmart had 15 unusually active options on Wednesday -- options with volume of 500 contracts or more and expiring in seven days or more -- with calls and puts almost equally split at 7 and 8, respectively.  

As for the put/call volume, it was relatively neutral at 0.86. However, the daily metric since the beginning of June has been above 0.86 on only two occasions: 0.98 on June 25 and 0.92 on June 17, suggesting investors are slowly becoming more bearish about Walmart stock. 

The unusually active option of the 15 that caught my attention from yesterday is the Aug. 21 $100 put. While its Vol/OI (volume-to-open-interest) ratio wasn't high at 2.65, the 18,894 in volume was.  

Today, I'll take a closer look at the Aug. 21 $100 put and the options strategy a particular trader/investor may have implemented based on it. 

The WMT Put Option in Question

The volume for the Aug. 21 $100 put was the highest of the 15 unusually active options from yesterday. The only other with a volume of 10,000 or more was the July 17 $125 put at 11,385. The 16-day DTE (days to expiration) plays a part in today's commentary. 

Breaking down the 18,894 volume for the Aug. 21 $100 put, I'll look at the put's options flow from yesterday. 

The one trade yesterday at 9:54 accounted for 92% of the total volume for the Aug. 21 $100 put. There were also a large number of trades ranging from 10 to 100 contracts. But it is the 17,350 trade that piqued my interest. You'll note the "S," which indicates it was a sell-to-open trade for premium income. However, the MLFT (multi-leg floor trade) code suggests it is combined with another option.