Shares of Sequenom, Inc. (SQNM: sentiment, chart, options) skyrocketed on Tuesday, as investors speculated that the diagnostics company will soon release positive data regarding its prenatal Down syndrome test. As a result, call volume on the equity exploded to more than 12 times the norm, as the stock saw roughly 26,250 calls change hands, compared to its average single-session volume of fewer than 2,200 contracts.

Most popular was the equity's now at-the-money December 4 call, which saw 12,132 contracts cross the tape. Fifty-one percent of the calls traded at the ask price, suggesting they were purchased. Nevertheless, the out-of-the-money December 6 strike remains home to peak call open interest in the front-month series, with more than 20,400 contracts in residence.

However, yesterday's bullish bombardment wasn't a one-session phenomenon. During the past couple of weeks, speculators on the International Securities Exchange (ISE) and Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) have bought to open nearly 40 times more SQNM calls as puts, as demonstrated by the stock's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 39.50. This reading registers in the 98th annual percentile, indicating that traders on the exchanges have initiated bullish positions on SQNM at a faster pace only 2% of the time during the past year.

After smacking into resistance at its 20-week moving average, SQNM has pared a portion of yesterday's gains, surrendering 8.6% to flirt with the $4 level.