Question about Option volume

[DallasCowboysFan]

I am still learning.

I set up a paper trade simulator on TD Ameritrade / Think or Swim.

I opened a link for options and looked up SPX.

Under the drop down bar it has a link for Today's Option Statistics.

It does not specifically identify SPX in the dropdown box so it is misleading to me if it relates to SPX or the entire option markets.

It says that there were 570,421 Calls and 713,417 Puts.....for a total of 1,283,838.


Was that just for SPX ? I wonder how the volume relates to an average daily volume.

I am familiar with the DJI, but not option contracts.

Also....there were more puts than calls. About 25 percent more.... does that suggest that the financial consensus thinks that the market is going to do down ?

 

[rmorse]

I'm not sure what you hope to do with the information, but you can get volume information here: http://theocc.com/webapps/volume-query

 

[DallasCowboysFan]

Thanks, I'll check it out later.

 

[blueplayer]

I am still learning.

I set up a paper trade simulator on TD Ameritrade / Think or Swim.

I opened a link for options and looked up SPX.

Under the drop down bar it has a link for Today's Option Statistics.

It does not specifically identify SPX in the dropdown box so it is misleading to me if it relates to SPX or the entire option markets.

It says that there were 570,421 Calls and 713,417 Puts.....for a total of 1,283,838.


Was that just for SPX ? I wonder how the volume relates to an average daily volume.

I am familiar with the DJI, but not option contracts.

Also....there were more puts than calls. About 25 percent more.... does that suggest that the financial consensus thinks that the market is going to do down ?

Hello, 1M options in volume sounds about right for daily activity in SPX alone. Also it is the nature of the beast that in index options, puts are traded more frequently than calls so nothing weird with that and it doesn't mean anything other than the usual state of affairs.

 

[DallasCowboysFan]

Hello, 1M options in volume sounds about right for daily activity in SPX alone. Also it is the nature of the beast that in index options, puts are traded more frequently than calls so nothing weird with that and it doesn't mean anything other than the usual state of affairs.

Thanks, I appreciate it.

But I wonder if puts and calls are traded at different rates based on the general direction of the market. It seems that if the market is rising (as a trend ) that there would be more calls than puts.

However, I have seen a few times that there are more put options than call options just like you said.

 

[blueplayer]

Thanks, I appreciate it.

But I wonder if puts and calls are traded at different rates based on the general direction of the market. It seems that if the market is rising (as a trend ) that there would be more calls than puts.

However, I have seen a few times that there are more put options than call options just like you said.

There are plenty of research papers that try to extract information from volume (from calls and puts) with diverse results. In index options there is a certain degree of information in that volume but you need to segregate the volume information in different buckets (like retail, institutional and brokers). If you have the volume information broken down like that you can do interesting stuff. However with the aggregate info that is reported nothing much can be concluded from it.