Put/Call Ratio: Formula, Latest Cboe Reading and Which Levels Matter

Michael Whitman · Trading since 2017, full-time since 2020 · YouTube creator, 137K subscribers · Published 2026-09-25 · Updated 2026-11-02 · Reviewed 2026-11-01

The put/call ratio is the number of put options traded divided by the number of call options traded, usually over one day, so a reading above 1.0 means more puts than calls. On Friday 30 October 2026, Cboe’s equity ratio was 0.66 and its total ratio 0.90.

Ask what those numbers mean and most guides answer with a fixed line: above 0.70 is bearish, below it bullish. That line has fired on most days of some years and almost none of others. This page shows the division for the latest session, a better way to judge whether a reading is high, and what the common thresholds would actually have done on 5,030 days of Cboe data since November 2006.

How it works

Puts traded divided by calls traded. A put gains when the underlying falls and a call when it rises, so a day with more put volume than call volume produces a ratio above 1.0. Most published versions count contracts traded that day; a version built on open interest counts contracts still open instead and moves much more slowly.

Cboe splits the count by product. The equity ratio covers options on single stocks. Since 11 June 2012, according to the note in Cboe’s history file, it has excluded options on exchange-traded products, which Cboe now reports as a separate ratio. The index ratio covers options on indexes such as the S&P 500, where institutions buy puts as insurance, so it sits higher. The total ratio adds everything together.

The contrarian reading is the usual one. A high ratio says traders are paying for protection, which tends to follow a fall; a low one says call buyers are crowding in, which tends to follow a run up. Treated as a contrarian gauge, an extreme in either direction suggests one side has gone too far. Cboe’s figures count volume on Cboe’s own exchanges, not every US options venue, so another source can print a different number for the same day.

A worked example: the latest reading

Step 1, the division. On 30 October 2026, Cboe’s equity options traded 1,912,367 puts and 2,904,468 calls: 1,912,367 / 2,904,468 = 0.6584, published as 0.66. Across all products, 9,251,263 puts against 10,250,848 calls gave a total ratio of 0.9025, or 0.90, and index options alone 5,155,780 / 4,991,846 = 1.03.

Step 2, smooth it. The ten equity readings from 19 to 30 October averaged 0.5956, so Friday stood well above its own recent run. Single days jump around, which is why many traders watch a five- or ten-day average.

Step 3, rank it against the past year. Of the 252 trading days from 29 October 2025 to 29 October 2026, 199 had a lower equity ratio than 0.6584: roughly the 79th percentile. To reach the top 10% of that year a day needed more than 0.6913. The year’s highest was 0.9250, on 31 December 2025.

Step 4, read it next to price. SPY closed at $755.72 that Friday, down 1.77% from $769.36 the day before, by Nasdaq’s figures. In the long record below, days when SPY fell 1% to 2% had a median equity ratio of 0.70, so 0.66 was an ordinary reaction to a down day rather than a sign of panic.

The thresholds you will read, tested

“Above 0.70 is bearish.” The level drifts so much that the rule mostly measures the year. The equity ratio closed above 0.70 on 175 of 253 days in 2008 (69.17%), 97 of 250 in 2023 (38.80%), 1 of 252 in 2021 (0.40%) and 16 of 209 so far in 2026 (7.66%). Readings below 0.50, the “bullish” side, ran the other way: 167 of 252 days in 2021 (66.27%) against 1 in 2008.

What followed did not justify the label either. Across days from November 2006 to 26 August 2026 with a full 21-session window, SPY’s median change over the next 21 sessions was +1.83% after an equity ratio above 0.70 (1,179 days), +1.26% after one below 0.50 (551 days) and +1.48% for all 4,984 days. The share of windows that ended higher was 64.72%, 65.88% and 65.77%: no meaningful difference.

“Above 1.5 is extreme fear, below 0.20 extreme greed.” On the equity ratio, 1.5 was passed on 3 days in 20 years, 21 and 28 December 2022 and 10 January 2024, and 0.20 never: the lowest close was 0.32, on 14 April 2010. A rule that almost never fires cannot be tested.

“A 10-day total ratio above 1.1 marks a trough, below 0.8 a peak.” Of 5,021 days with a 10-day average, 363 were above 1.1, in 46 separate runs, the last starting on 3 October 2023. SPY rose over the next 21 sessions after 36 of those 46 starts (78.26%), against 65.77% of all days, but many starts sit days apart inside the same selloff, so 46 is fewer independent events than it looks.

The low side said nothing about peaks. Below 0.8 came 372 days in 30 runs, 211 of them in 2020 and 2021; SPY was higher 21 sessions later after 18 of the 30, which is no sign of a peak. The latest 10-day average, on 30 October 2026, was 0.8923.

The original data

The sample. Cboe’s equity and total put/call counts for every trading day from 1 November 2006 to 30 October 2026: 3,253 days from Cboe’s history files, which end on 4 October 2019, and 1,777 from its daily statistics files after that, 5,030 in all. For every day, the ratio recomputed from the counts matched the two-decimal ratio Cboe published. The median equity ratio was 0.62 and the median total ratio 0.92. The daily file to 25 September carries SPY’s forward returns beside each day. The yearly table and the October 2026 days are published.

It moves with the day’s market. Each Cboe day to 25 September 2026, 5,005 in all, was lined up with SPY’s move that same session from Yahoo Finance adjusted closes. The median equity ratio climbed as the day got worse:

The biggest up days broke the pattern, at 0.63, because days that large mostly come inside selloffs when traders are still buying protection. The correlation between SPY’s same-day move and the equity ratio was -0.31: real, but loose. The same-day file has every day.

Ranking against its own past year. In the test on data to 25 September 2026, each day from 2 November 2007 was ranked against its previous 252 days. Days in the top 10%, 546 with a full 21-session window, saw a median SPY change of +2.24% over the next 21 sessions, against +1.52% for all 4,732 days, and 66.5% of those windows ended higher, against 65.9%. Over 63 sessions the medians were 3.80% and 3.78%, and fewer windows ended higher after a high reading, 68.3% against 72.4%. The bucket table has every horizon.

Why none of this is a signal. The windows overlap, and high readings bunch in selloffs: of the 547 top-10% days, 92 fell in 2022, 59 in 2011 and 53 in 2015. They also overlap with the VIX only partly: 213 of those 547 days (38.94%) were top-10% days for the VIX too, against 11.66% of all 4,753 days that could be ranked both ways.

When it fails

The baseline moves under it. The 2021 median of 0.47, in the yearly medians, would have looked like extreme complacency by 2008 standards, and it lasted a whole year while SPY rose.

Volume is not intent. A put bought to hedge shares a trader owns is not a bet against the market, and a call sold against shares adds call volume without being bullish. The ratio counts contracts, not reasons, and counts each the same whether it is worth $5 or $5,000.

One day can be an outlier. The 2.40 reading on 28 December 2022 was more than twice any typical level; check the underlying volumes before reading a spike as a mood.

Fear can be early. High readings arrive during declines, and declines can keep going. The lower share of rising 63-session windows after high readings is the reminder.

Questions people ask

What is a good put/call ratio?

There is no fixed good level, because the baseline drifts. Judge a reading against its own past year: on 30 October 2026 the equity ratio needed more than 0.69 to rank in the top 10% of the previous 252 days.

What does a put/call ratio of 1.25 mean?

It depends on which ratio. On the equity ratio, 1.25 or more happened on 14 of 5,030 days, 10 of them in late 2022, so it is a genuine outlier. On the total ratio, which includes index puts bought as insurance, 96.50% of days were lower: high, but it happened on 176 days.

What does a put/call ratio of 0.9 mean?

On the total ratio it is ordinary: 55.73% of days since 2006 were at 0.90 or higher, and 30 October 2026 was one of them. On the equity ratio it is rare, with 97.04% of days lower.

What is Nvidia’s put/call ratio?

Single stocks have their own. In Cboe’s delayed quotes for NVDA read after the 30 October 2026 session, the contracts still listed had traded 1,013,303 puts and 1,675,552 calls that day: a volume ratio of 0.60. Contracts that expired on 30 October had already dropped out of that feed, so the day’s full volume was larger and its ratio could differ. By open interest it was 1.05, because open interest counts every contract still held.

Is a put/call ratio above 1 bearish?

On the equity ratio it is rare: 59 of 5,030 days. The total ratio was above 1.0 on 1,404 days (27.91%), so there it is not unusual at all.

Related

The put option page explains the contract on the top of the fraction and why it is bought both to speculate and to insure. The VIX reads the same fear from option prices rather than volumes. And open interest covers the slower count behind the second NVDA figure above. For the contract on the bottom of the fraction, see the call option.

This page is educational, not financial advice. Test every idea on your own charts before risking money.