Compute stock-specific equity put/call ratios; track 10-day trend; classify sentiment regime
Answers whether options traders are leaning fearful or greedy on a stock. For each tracked equity it reads put/call data covering the overall ratio, volume-based and open-interest-based ratios, and the 10-day average, plus a 20-day average and a 20-day z-score where enough earlier sessions exist: a positive z-score means today's ratio is more put-heavy than its earlier sessions and a negative one more call-heavy. It classifies each reading by its own fixed cut-offs: fear at a ratio of 1.3 or above, greed at 0.7 or below, neutral between them. It sits alongside price and flow as a read of options sentiment. Extreme readings are traditionally read as crowded positioning near turning points, a contrarian hypothesis with mixed empirical support rather than an established effect.
A sentiment measure built from option activity, and a good case study in the difference between a statistic and its interpretation.
The ratio is puts divided by calls. Two versions exist and answer different questions: the VOLUME ratio counts contracts traded that day, a flow measure; the OPEN INTEREST ratio counts contracts outstanding, a stock measure. Mixing them, or comparing one venue's to another's, produces nonsense. The 10-day average smooths daily noise.
The 20-day z-score restates today's ratio as standard deviations from the stock's earlier sessions. It is measured on the headline ratio, which is the volume ratio, or the open-interest ratio when the day's volume gives no ratio: today's ratio minus the mean of the EARLIER sessions in the 20-session window, divided by the sample standard deviation of those earlier sessions. Today is left out of that mean so it does not dampen its own deviation, which is why the z-score is not measured from the 20-day average, which includes today. It needs at least three earlier sessions that are not all identical; with fewer, no z-score is given. That is what makes 'unusual' meaningful for an instrument whose normal ratio might be 0.6 or 1.4 - the raw level is not comparable across names, and the z-score is the standard fix.
THE SIGN IS EASY TO READ BACKWARDS, so hold on to it. The z-score is measured on PUTS divided by CALLS, so a POSITIVE z-score means today is MORE PUT-HEAVY than usual for that stock and a NEGATIVE one MORE CALL-HEAVY. Greed sits on the call side and fear on the put side, so a positive z-score eases a greed reading and deepens a fear reading, and a negative one does the reverse. A greed reading with a large positive z-score has moved toward puts; it is not a fresh or accelerating greed extreme.
The CONTRARIAN interpretation - extreme readings marking crowded positioning near turning points - is the traditional one and should be taught as a hypothesis with mixed empirical support rather than an established effect. Three structural cautions belong with it. VOLUME IS UNSIGNED: a traded put contract does not reveal whether it was bought or sold to open, so a high put volume is not evidence that puts were being accumulated. Not every put is a bet on decline either - puts are bought as insurance on a position the holder intends to keep, so a rising ratio can mean hedging rather than bearishness. And a large share of option activity is market-maker and systematic flow, which is not necessarily directionless but is driven by mandate, hedging or index mechanics rather than by a view on this name.
On the label: the fear / neutral / greed call is our own convention, applied the same way to every row's headline ratio - fear at a ratio of 1.3 or above, greed at 0.7 or below, neutral between them. A row with no readable ratio is unavailable, which is an absence rather than a neutral reading. The z-score never changes the label: a neutral reading stays neutral however far it has moved from its earlier sessions.
Published reports are readable without an account. The newest is Ether (ETH) and XRP extend a month-long slide as Bitcoin falls below $75,000: trend, momentum and news (Nov 9, 2026). Create an account to run research on the stocks and crypto you choose.