Put/call skew
Put/call skew is the share of a ticker's or the market's options flow going to puts versus calls, usually shown as a PUT% of total volume or notional. A reading above 50% means puts are outtrading calls; above roughly 60% is generally read as a broadly bearish tilt for that session, though the number alone doesn't say whether that flow is speculation or hedging.
Last updated 2 Aug 2026
What it measures
Skew measures the split of options activity between puts and calls, for a single ticker or aggregated across the whole market, expressed as a percentage. A PUT% of 35 means calls dominate that flow roughly two to one; a PUT% of 65 means the reverse. It can be built from either volume, today's trading, or open interest, standing positions, and the two tell different stories: volume skew shows what's happening right now, open interest skew shows what's already been built up over time.
How to read it
Read skew as a directional tilt, not a precise forecast. A rising PUT% through the session on elevated volume suggests fresh bearish or hedging flow is building; a falling one suggests the opposite. It's most useful compared against that same ticker's own recent baseline rather than judged against a fixed number in isolation, since some names structurally run a higher put share than others simply because they're widely used for portfolio hedging. Pairing skew with notional matters too: a 65% PUT% reading on a thin, low-volume day carries far less weight than the same reading on a session with heavy total flow behind it.
What it does not tell you
Skew can't separate a genuine bearish bet from a protective hedge, and the two look identical in the raw percentage. A fund buying puts against a large long stock position pushes the PUT% up exactly the same way outright bearish speculation would, even though the two imply opposite views on the stock. It also compresses a lot of nuance: strike, expiry, and size all get flattened into one ratio, so a skew reading alone can't tell you whether the put buying is short-dated and urgent or a routine longer-term hedge rolled forward every quarter.
Worked example
| Morning PUT% | 38% |
|---|---|
| Afternoon PUT% | 64% |
Take a session where a ticker trading near $58 shows a PUT% of 38% for most of the morning, then climbs to 64% by early afternoon as a wave of put buying hits the tape alongside a broader market pullback. That shift, both in direction and magnitude, is the kind of move that gets flagged as meaningfully bearish. Compare that to a different name sitting at a steady 58% PUT% all week, in line with its usual pattern because it's a common hedging vehicle for a sector ETF. Same absolute number, very different signal, since one represents a real-time shift and the other is simply that name's normal baseline.
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