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On Wednesday, upside bets were back in vogue with call options outnumbering puts by a ratio of 1.3-to-1.

As of Tuesday, open VIX call contracts outnumbered puts by a 3.5-to-1 margin, the most in about six months, according to options analytics firm Trade Alert data.

Despite reports of the talks stalling, calls have outnumbered puts by a ratio of more than 3-to-1 on heavy volume.

The S&P put-to-call ratio favors puts by about the highest margin over the last two years, in a sign of demand to hedge risk in the market as a whole.

Call options, usually used to place bullish bets on shares, outnumbered puts by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.