Options market: puts surge to 7‑year extreme
Put‑option positioning on the S&P 500 has spiked to levels not seen since 2019 — a 7‑year extreme that signals investors are hedging aggressively against a potential market correction put positioning video. For active investors this means volatility risk is front‑loaded; consider reviewing hedges or trimming exposure in momentum names until the put demand cools options warning.
The S&P 500 index put/call ratio registered 1.23 on March 13, 2026. (ycharts.com) A 10‑day put/call average above 1.1 is a common technical threshold for heavy hedging and potential market trough signals, and that benchmark was breached in recent sessions. (en.macromicro.me) Options analytics firm SpotGamma flagged put skew sitting near extreme readings and said dealer negative‑gamma positioning has grown, a configuration that historically magnifies intraday moves. (spotgamma.com) Cboe data show zero‑days‑to‑expiration (0DTE) products accounted for roughly 57% of SPX index options average daily volume in Q3 2025 — about 2.15 million 0DTE contracts — concentrating a lot of volatility into the final trading hours. (cboe.com) Bloomberg reported a surge in short‑dated options and described a “zero‑day options boom” into March 2026 as hedging activity picked up around large cap tech names. (bloomberg.com) Single‑stock and ETF flows illustrate the tilt: IWM showed a put/call open‑interest imbalance near 2.4x with roughly 107,000 open contracts at the $242 puts, a sign of concentrated downside insurance in small‑cap exposure. (ainvest.com)
