Option Volume Analysis

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Our Option Volume Analysis page answers one question: what are options traders doing on this stock right now, and is that unusual?

Volume is the number of option contracts traded during the day, including new positions, closed positions and day trades. The page splits it into calls and puts, by expiration, by strike and over time, and compares today's put/call ratio with the stock's own past year.

In order to find it, just open any ticker in Research and choose Option Volume Analysis in the left sidebar.

How the page is laid out

The snapshot (top): Option Volume, Today's Read, and four charts by expiry, strike and contract. These show the latest end-of-day (EOD) data, dated above the Put/Call Ratio by Expiry chart.
The history (bottom): price, put/call ratio, and call and put volume over time.

The range buttons (1M / 3M / 6M / 1Y / 3Y) only change the history charts.

1. Option Volume

The first block at the top of the page presents several key details on the ticker:

Today's Volume: all calls plus all puts traded.
Volume vs Avg (30d): today's volume against its 30-day average.
Volume Put-Call Ratio: put volume divided by call volume. Above 1.00, more puts traded than calls.

Its short labels ("Slight put skew - mildly bearish") use one fixed scale for every ticker. For a reading against this ticker's own history, use Today's Read.

This, for instance, is the block for SPY at the time of writing:

Put/call ratio: 5,252,698 puts / 4,704,929 calls = 1.12.
Versus the 30-day average: 9,957,627 contracts traded against an average of 12,199,883, 18.38% fewer than usual.

2. Today's Read

This is another block you should prioritize in your reading. Every ticker has its own definition of what is "normal": for instance, SPY trades plenty of puts because funds use them as hedges, while you may find that many single stocks trade mostly calls. Today's Read helps you make sense of that by comparing today's ratio with this ticker's past year.

1Y percentile (the gauge): where today's ratio ranks among the past year's daily ratios, from 0 to 100.
Low vs 1Y (below 20): unusually call-heavy for this ticker
Typical (20 to 80): normal for this ticker
High vs 1Y (above 80): unusually put-heavy for this ticker
Signal strength: today's total volume against its 30-day average. A ratio on light volume tells you little.
Weak: more than 15% below average
Moderate: 15% below to 30% above
Strong: more than 30% above
The written read: the same verdict in three sentences.

A ticker needs at least 60 trading days of history to show the gauge.

This is Today's Read for SPY:

SPY's 1.12 sits at the 41st percentile, so it is typical for SPY. Volume was 18.4% below average, past a 15% cut-off that we built in the code, so it is a weak signal: an ordinary mix on a quiet day.

3. Put/Call Ratio by Expiry

This chart shows in which expirations the puts or calls are concentrated. Each point is one expiration's put volume divided by its call volume ("w" marks a weekly, "m" a monthly).

Parity (1.00): above it, more puts than calls.
All expirations: the ticker's overall ratio. Points above it are more put-heavy than the ticker as a whole.

Hover a point to see the volume behind it. Far-dated expirations often trade so little that one order makes a spike.

This is the chart for SPY, with the November 20 monthly expiration selected:

You may read the info from the chart as follows:

November 20: 200,646 puts traded against 78,175 calls, a ratio of 2.57, on 278,821 contracts. A real concentration of puts.
June 17, 2027: the highest point at 4.31, but on only 7,599 contracts. Too little to mean much.

For example, November 20 may deserve a closer look than the highest point on the chart. Its 2.57 ratio comes with 278,821 contracts traded, compared with just 7,599 for June 17, 2027. The more extreme ratio therefore represents much less trading. Looking at volume alongside the ratio could help you decide which expirations to investigate further.

4. Option Volume by Strike

The day's call and put volume at each strike.

Expiration: tick one or several (all are ticked by default). Volume is added up by strike.
Calls & Puts/Calls/Puts: show both sides or one.
Spot (dashed line): the closing price.
Max pain (purple line): the strike where the selected expirations would pay out the least at expiration, based on open interest. It is not a price target.

With all expirations ticked, SPY's volume clustered around the 754.35 close at the time of writing, because most of it was in same-day options:

With only November 20 ticked, the puts show up at lower strikes:

The three tallest bars are the 716, 718 and 720 puts. Together they traded about 70,000 contracts, roughly 35% of that expiration's puts. The 716 strike is about 5% below the close. Max pain for this expiration is 768. For someone looking at November 20 options, this concentration could help narrow the research to the 716-720 strikes: why did so much of the day's put trading take place around 5% below the stock price? Possible explanations include downside protection, bearish positions or put selling. The chart gives you a specific area to investigate, but volume alone cannot distinguish between those explanations or establish a support level.

Max pain at 768 adds a different comparison: it is based on open interest, while the bars show today's trading volume. The busiest strikes today can therefore sit away from max pain. Neither level should be treated as a price target.

5. Option Volume by Expiration

Next, if you scroll down, you will see the day's volume grouped by expiration. This view gives you an idea of whether activity was in short-dated options, the monthlies, or further out.

This is, again, the chart for SPY:

The November 3 options, which expired that same day, traded 7,717,089 of SPY's 9,957,627 contracts, about 77%. So SPY's daily ratio is mostly same-day trading, which is why the expiry view in section 3 matters.

These numbers suggest that most of the day's trading was in contracts expiring that same day. If you are researching a later expiration, its own volume may tell you more about activity relevant to that date than the overall daily totals.

6. Highest Volume Options

Scroll down and you'll find the 20 contracts with the most volume, filtered by expiration and side.

This is the list for SPY with all expirations ticked:

All 20 are same-day contracts, led by the 754 put (658,272). Untick that expiration to see what traded further out. With only November 20 ticked, the top three are the 718, 716 and 720 puts.

Here, all 20 places are taken by same-day contracts. That means the overall ranking does not show which November 20 contracts were busiest. Filtering for November 20 lets you compare activity within that expiration, including contracts that did not make the overall top 20.

7. History

We also added three charts on one timeline to give you a historical perspective over what you're observing. Hover any of them and the others show the same date.

Underlying Price: the daily close. The "Current" readout updates during the day.
Volume Put-Call Ratio: the daily ratio. The gray band is the average ± 2 standard deviations, so readings outside it are unusual. The year's high and low are pinned (untick Min/Max to hide them).
Call Volume and Put Volume: daily calls (green) and puts (red).

Drag the chart to move along the timeline, drag the axes to zoom, and use the reset button to go back.

This is SPY over one year, with the cursor on its highest reading:

Below it, the volume chart shows what drove that reading. On April 2, put volume (red) jumped to 8,137,212, while call volume (green) stayed near its usual level at 4,690,666:

For example, the April 2 charts suggest that the 1.73 ratio came from a jump in put trading, while call volume remained near its usual level. The two volume lines help explain what changed: a ratio can rise because puts become busier or because calls become quieter. Here, the increase in put volume appears to be the main driver.

The 1.12 value from the "Today" section described above sits inside the gray band. The year's high was 1.73 on April 2, 2026, with SPY at $655.83, a few days after its lowest point of the year. The low was 0.72 on August 4, 2026, when SPY rose 1.80% to $771.33.

What the SPY reading means, and what it does not

What it means: the overall ratio was typical and on light volume, so it says little. The useful detail is underneath: puts in the November 20 monthly, clustered about 5% below the price.

What it does not mean: more puts than calls does not mean SPY is about to fall. Volume does not show who opened the trade. Heavy put volume can be:

Hedging: buying puts to protect shares
Bearish bets: buying puts to profit from a fall
Put selling: collecting premium to buy lower

SPY's own year shows why this matters: its most put-heavy day came after the drop, and SPY was 17.6% higher by August 4.

A put/call ratio is not a trade signal by itself. Use it as context next to your own view, the price chart and implied volatility.

How to use the page

If you have a directional view, check Today's Read first. An unusual reading on a Strong signal could help you assess how unusual the day's put/call mix is and how much trading sits behind it.
If you plan to sell premium, check Option Volume by Strike for your expiration. Heavy volume near your short strike means other traders are active there.
If an event is coming, look for a spike on Put/Call Ratio by Expiry in the first expiration after it.
If a scan flags unusual volume, open the ticker here. In the Screener, the Unusual volume category holds the Unusual Call volume and Unusual Put volume scans.

Summary

Start with Today's Read: is the ratio unusual for this ticker, and is there enough volume behind it? Then check where the activity sits by expiration and strike, and whether it is new on the history charts. Treat the ratio as context, not as the trade.

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