Unusual options activity: Oct 20, 2026

How to read this, and what it cannot tell you

Each snapshot is one templated sentence computed from options chain snapshots aggregated to ticker, expiry and call or put totals, each over at least 3 traded contracts. The sentence is generated by fixed rules, never written by a model, and it never changes once published: a template fix applies only to new snapshots.

• Delayed at least 15 minutesEvery figure is published at least 15 minutes after the chain capture it describes, and stamped with that capture time in Eastern time.
• 21 symbols intraday, about 200 end of dayIntraday snapshots cover a fixed list of 21 symbols (major stocks, ETFs and the SPX index), not every optionable symbol. Open interest changes cover about 200 symbols from the nightly Cboe settlement archive.
• The strikes we track, not the full bookA chain capture is a window: up to 40 strikes around the money in each expiration from the broker chain, or every strike in the nearest expirations from the Cboe delayed chain. Totals, shares and ratios describe the strikes captured, and each snapshot states its own coverage.
• Thin cells are withheldEvery published total, ratio and share rests on at least 3 traded contracts (volume above zero; for open interest change, contracts whose open interest changed). A call or put side of one expiry below that is left out of every figure, shown as withheld, and counted in a footnote, so no difference between published numbers recovers it.
• Session totals, not tradesVolume is the session total read from chain snapshots, aggregated to ticker, expiry and call or put. There is no trade-by-trade record behind it, and no single trade is shown.
• No buyer, seller or directionA chain cannot say who bought or sold, whether a contract was opened or closed, or whether it was one leg of a spread. Calls can be sold and puts can hedge stock, so no snapshot carries a direction.
• Premium is an estimateEstimated premium is volume times the quote midpoint times 100 shares. It is labelled "est." wherever it appears.
• Open interest arrives the next dayOpen interest is the prior settlement figure. Whether contracts stayed open is only known after the next settlement, which is when each snapshot gets its follow-up.

The six kinds of snapshot

• Put/call by expiry. Put or call volume in one expiry at least 2.5 times the other side (once a ticker has history, 1.75 times its own usual ratio for that range of expiries), with at least 2,000 contracts on the heavy side.
• Volume vs open interest. One strike trading at least 5 times its prior open interest, and at least 3 times the ratio of its expiry's tracked strikes, with at least 1,000 contracts open.
• Premium concentration. One expiry holding an outsized share of a ticker's tracked estimated premium for the session.
• Same-day share. Contracts expiring the same day taking at least 60% of a ticker's tracked option volume (once it has history, 10 points above its own usual share).
• Near vs far dates. The put/call ratio within three weeks at least twice, or at most half, the ratio one to three months out.
• Open interest change. Open interest in one expiry and type changing sharply between two settlements, against that symbol's own typical change.

Until a ticker has five sessions of its own history, a snapshot is judged against a fixed threshold and says so; after that it is also compared with the ticker's own 20-session median, and the snapshot page shows how many sessions that median rests on.

Covered intraday

SPX, SPY, QQQ, IWM, AAPL, MSFT, NVDA, TSLA, META, AMZN, GOOGL, AMD, NFLX, COIN, PLTR, BAC, JPM, GS, XOM, V, SOFI.