Honestly, the only way to tell if "something is up" is to look at the volume in the options and trend of volume of option trading in the name. If one day you see BLOCKS of options trading in the puts and calls, you know there's something going on.
HOWEVER, it's great to see that someone bought a big lot of calls, or puts, or sold the puts or calls....but its a whole different story to KNOW **WHY and WHAT** the strategy behind those purchase/sales were. Were they a hedge on a long/short position? Is it a speculative position going long or short? No one except the buyer/seller of those contracts knows for sure. Granted, in some strategies, in option spread and straddle strategies, you can possibly get a hint at what the trader is trying to do - whether its a bear/bull spread etc., but, in a lot of cases, where you just have options trading like we've seen, it's nearly, if not entirely, impossible to know whats going on "behind the scenes" on the trading desk, or with portfolio management team.
Like I said, when we start seeing big blocks trading in a lot of different expiration dates, etc., it's time to get nervous - because news is coming.
(but you already know all of this....but, just bc you asked...)
