See unusual options activity today

What this recipe computes

• Volume-to-open-interest ratio per contract, above sensible liquidity floors.
• The standing open interest the ratio is measured against.
• Strike, expiry and days to expiry for each contract.

What it does not claim

• A high ratio is not proof of opening activity — volume counts closes and the far leg of spreads too.
• Open interest only updates next session, so the denominator is yesterday’s.
• 0DTE is excluded: on expiry day the denominator no longer means anything.

How to read it

1. Step 1

   Read the ratio, then the base

   A 50× ratio on 120 open interest is a much smaller event than 5× on 40,000.

2. Step 2

   Check the expiry

   Near-dated ratios turn over fast. A multi-week contract building volume is a different story.

3. Step 3

   Confirm with the tape

   Pre-Move Positioning traces whether the open interest actually persisted across sessions.

Frequently asked questions

Why is 0DTE excluded?

On expiry day the standing open interest is the previous session’s, so the ratio measures churn against a base that no longer exists. A 0DTE contract tops that screen by construction.

Does unusual activity mean someone knows something?

No. The ratio is descriptive. Volume includes closing trades and the other leg of someone’s spread, and nothing in the tape identifies the trader or the motive.

Related glossary

• Unusual options activity (UOA)UOA flags contracts or underlyings trading far above recent norms in volume, size, or premium. It is an attention screen, not a directional signal.
• Volume / open interest (Vol/OI)Vol/OI is today’s volume divided by open interest. High ratios mean today’s trading is large versus the standing book.
• Open interest (OI)Open interest is how many options contracts remain open. Unlike volume, it does not reset each morning and usually updates after the session.
• Option flowOption flow is the time-and-sales stream of options prints: contract, size, premium, and inferred aggressor side.

Related personas

• Options Flow for Day TradersDay traders need speed with a filter: see what is printing now, rank what is unusual, then validate structure before risking capital. TradingFlow is built for that same-session loop.
• Options Flow for Swing TradersSwing traders care about positioning that can last more than a day: unusual flow, OI confirmation, and walls for multi-day levels.
• Unusual Options Activity for EarningsEarnings compress time: IV is rich, strikes get loud, and the wrong filter set gets expensive. Rank unusual activity, bound DTE to the event, and plan for IV crush as well as direction.

Related recipes

• UOA screenerScreen unusual contracts by volume versus the book, not by a vendor’s opaque UOA score.
• OI accumulationSee whether OI actually built after loud prints, instead of trusting a one-session sweep.
• OI lotteryFind cheap deep-OTM contracts that added open interest, without treating them as a UOA score.