A trader invested $24 million on Thursday in a three-part call spread involving the Invesco QQQ Trust ETF. This options trade requires the Nasdaq-100 index to achieve an all-time high by the end of June.

The core component of this position was a $30 million acquisition of 28,000 736-strike calls that expire on July 31. This purchase occurred approximately 90 minutes after the market opened on Thursday. Additionally, the trader sold $6 million worth of the 730/740-strike call spread, also expiring on July 31.

The breakeven point for this QQQ trade is around $750. This figure is less than $2 higher than the QQQ's peak recorded at the beginning of June. Open interest for the 736-strike calls matched the volume of the trade at the time it was executed.

Scott Bauer, CEO of Prosper Trading Academy, commented on the trading strategy. "The spread reduces his cost but pushes up the level for the breakeven," Bauer said. He added, "If he doesn't have another position against this, he needs Qs to explode higher."

The QQQ trade was identified as the third-largest among all options exchanged on Thursday. On that day, $1.6 billion in QQQ options were traded. Of this volume, $944 million was linked to call options. ThinkOrSwim data indicates that approximately the same number of call contracts were sold as were bought.

The Nasdaq-100 index has experienced a flat trajectory since May 14, last reaching a high on June 3. The majority of QQQ options volume on Thursday centered around the $710 level. The S&P 500 has been trading within a roughly 200-point range since early May.