Similar to fellow telecom titan and blue-chip brethren Verizon Communications (VZ), AT&T Inc. (T: sentiment, chart, options) was also one of the best-performing Dow members on Monday. As such, the security saw roughly 30,200 calls cross the tape, nearly tripling its average single-session volume of fewer than 10,500 contracts.

The security's December 26 call was most popular, with close to 10,700 contracts changing hands. However, 47% of the in-the-money calls traded at the bid price, suggesting they were sold. Nevertheless, the 26 strike remains home to peak call open interest in the front-month series, with almost 30,400 contracts in residence.

The influx in call volume is further echoed by the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 2.40 on the International Securities Exchange (ISE). This ratio indicates that speculators during the past two weeks have bought to open more than twice as many T calls as puts. Furthermore, the reading ranks in the 85th annual percentile, implying that option players on the ISE have been more bullishly biased toward T only 15% of the time during the past year.

The optimistic attitude on the ISE, however, may suggest a reversal in sentiment in the option pits. The telecom issue's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) currently rests at 0.96, only seven percentage points shy of an annual pessimistic peak.

In late-morning activity, T has added 1% to hang out in the $27 neighborhood.