With PUT buying at record levels, why is the SKEW so flat?
- Thread starter xandman
- Start date
Matt_ORATS
Sponsor
I was thinking the same thing. If you are referring to the Bloomberg article posted on ET, they mentioned single stock puts.
ORATS terms the skew as Slope and our measurement is the percentage higher for each 10 deltas in call delta. A steeper skew is higher low strikes vs high strikes.
So with the Slope at 4% (the average is 7.5%) the skew is shallow in SPY.
However, in single stocks as represented by IWM_C, the weighted average of the components of the Russell, the skew is steepening. The slope was about 1% for much of 2021 and now it is 2.5%
https://gyazo.com/e513d68e1d7071749caaeebaffcb4ee3
ORATS terms the skew as Slope and our measurement is the percentage higher for each 10 deltas in call delta. A steeper skew is higher low strikes vs high strikes.
So with the Slope at 4% (the average is 7.5%) the skew is shallow in SPY.
However, in single stocks as represented by IWM_C, the weighted average of the components of the Russell, the skew is steepening. The slope was about 1% for much of 2021 and now it is 2.5%
https://gyazo.com/e513d68e1d7071749caaeebaffcb4ee3
My theory: the more volume the less MMs the less skew... 
Ie. it's the MMs...
Ie. it's the MMs...
Index or ETF vol is made of 2 components - single stock vol and implied correlation between the single stocks.
When vol increases, Implied correlation (IC) increases. Since IC is capped at 1, skew will flatten as we approach that number on the downside and IC will increase on the upside as well (all stocks rally in a "relief" rally).
Its normal that we are seeing skew flatten
When vol increases, Implied correlation (IC) increases. Since IC is capped at 1, skew will flatten as we approach that number on the downside and IC will increase on the upside as well (all stocks rally in a "relief" rally).
Its normal that we are seeing skew flatten
There is a much simpler, but less liked answer. Skew can be thought of as a way to induce buyers/sellers when there is a lack of natural buyers/sellers. Essentially an effort to give the MM community it's hedges. For example, higher skew in, puts - hopes to create sellers. MMs have almost a virtual monopoly on creating the quote stream. Currently the amount of two sided paper is ample. Why was there no skew pre87? It is simple fundamentals and much of the paper is fairly correlated.
"Maybe one reason is due to people buying near the money puts more than OTM puts?"
That would probably result in a significant skew, because of the gamma mismatch. If you look at OPRA IMHO it's just a ton of two-sided trading. The institutional guys say their correlation and dispersion books have been quiet - which sort of reinforces the logic. It looks like mostly highly correlated stuff trading.
That would probably result in a significant skew, because of the gamma mismatch. If you look at OPRA IMHO it's just a ton of two-sided trading. The institutional guys say their correlation and dispersion books have been quiet - which sort of reinforces the logic. It looks like mostly highly correlated stuff trading.
Matt_ORATS
Sponsor
Normal but not always. Here are some times when the skew didn't flatten back to 2007.
https://gyazo.com/aa76244d9c79c8b39bb1cff7b4f73492