Simplex Trading reduced its overall exposure to Nio in the second quarter of 2025, cutting back on options holdings while rebuilding a position in the Chinese electric vehicle maker’s common stock, its quarterly portfolio update showed on Friday.
The Chicago-based trading firm lowered its long call exposure to 7.15 million underlying shares from 11.49 million at the end of March, a decrease of 37.8% quarter on quarter.
Long puts increased modestly to 3.06 million underlying shares from 2.90 million, a rise of 5.6%. At the same time, the firm rebuilt a stake in Nio’s common stock to 586,245 shares, up sharply from just 26,830 shares at the end of the first quarter.
The composition of the book shifted during the quarter, with calls accounting for about 66% of the total at the end of June, down from 80% in March, puts rising to 28% from 20%, and cash equity increasing to 5% from almost zero.
A year earlier, the options positions were more evenly balanced, with calls representing 43%, puts 47% and common shares 9%.
The second quarter marked a reversal of that shift, with calls reduced, puts increased modestly, and a cash-equity stake rebuilt.
Simplex first reported a Nio position in the third quarter of 2018 — immediately after the company went public — disclosing 50,345 common shares alongside small call and put holdings.
Its largest reported common-stock position was 1.96 million shares in the third quarter of 2023.
The highest total disclosed long exposure was also in the first quarter of 2025, at 14.41 million share-equivalents, before falling back in the second quarter.
As reported last week, the Global X Autonomous & Electric Vehicles ETF continued to scale back its exposure to Chinese carmakers Nio and XPeng.
The ETF disclosed that it held 872,143 shares of Nio as of May 31, down 8.8% from 956,061 shares three months earlier.
The EV maker will release the revamped version of its six-seat SUV Nio ES8 in late September, at the annual event.
The group has seen rising demand for its sub-brand Onvo with the launch of the second model, the L90. Wall Street analysts expect monthly deliveries of the six and seven-seat SUV to range between 8,000 and 12,000 units.
