Options trading is just another vehicle people can use when attempting to make money. But sometimes they are overly aggressive in their attitude of how to make money. Trading options should be approached like any other type of investment. You have to premeditate the upward move and enter before the stock moves. Don't enter into an Ericsson just because the stock has moved 40 cents today and 50 cents yesterday.
Impulses are usually mistakes.
Part of the reason investors were buying Cisco calls two weeks ago was the prevailing confidence that the stock was ready for an uptrend. Those people buying the calls were paying possibly the high end of the volatility range, but they were committed to buying these calls because they were committed that the share price would head higher. The call buyers were most likely large money management firm because the premiums were expensive. They knew they were going to be buying that stock in the future regardless of what the share price was doing. In essence they were front-running because they knew over the next couple of months they would be aggressive buyers of the stock.