Oracle Earnings Tonight: Hidden Profits on the 3D Volatility Surface
Oracle reports after the bell today. At first glance it looks like a normal earnings event. Consensus expects $16.9B in revenue and $1.70 EPS (about 19% YoY growth). But in my personal view, the real story behind this release is AI infrastructure contracts. Over the last year Oracle's Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) have exploded to more than $500B; an enormous backlog tied to massive AI compute agreements. The market believes a large portion of that backlog comes from very large customers connected to the new generation of AI labs and data-center projects. Over the last year Oracle's Remaining Performance Obligations (RPO) exploded above $500B; an enormous backlog, tied to massive AI compute agreements. The market believes a big portion of that backlog comes from very large customers connected to the new generation of AI labs and data-center projects. So tonight the key question is how real that backlog actually is. And that difference could matter enormously for volatility. If the market starts to believe the backlog is durable and diversified, Oracle suddenly becomes one of the core AI infrastructure stocks, and if the opposite happens, the narrative weakens quickly. In other words, tonight is less about earnings and more about how investors reprice the AI story around Oracle. The weekly options expiring this Friday imply an 9-11% move. That sounds large, but the distribution of Oracle earnings moves is strange. The last four earnings reactions were roughly: -3%, +13%, +36%, 11%. The average move is about 9%, but that average hides very fat tails, Oracle can move far more than the average suggests. This creates a strange situation. Systematic traders who compare the implied move with the average historical move see the straddle as expensive. But traders who remember the +36% move (like Tom Sosnoff 😉) know that Oracle can explode. So the options market is currently sitting right between those two views. Here's another unusual detail. Short-term put skew has steepened, meaning traders are paying up for downside protection, but at the same time there has been heavy call buying in longer-dated options. This tells us something interesting about sentiment. Investors are nervous about the near-term risks around the earnings event, but they still want exposure to the long-term AI upside. That combination leads to strong front-week volatility followed by sharp IV crush once the event passes.