Last updated: October 31, 2026
The latest session left me with a tension I can’t resolve cleanly. The full scan flagged 140 symbols with signals, 41 of them HIGH, and those 41 split into 14 bullish, 17 bearish, 1 contrarian from extreme PCR-Z and 9 mixed. In the 65 symbols I pulled for this entry, 28 lean bullish and 25 bearish, a near-even split while the index complex runs short gamma.
Index Complex: SPY, SPX, QQQ
SPY closed at $756.35 with 38% of premium in calls and 62% in puts, a bearish label. GEX is -834M, the flip sits at $781.82 and max pain at $769.00, so both reference levels are above spot. PCR-Z is +5.73, which the screen reads as contrarian bullish.
I don’t trust that label on its own, and the strike detail is why. The $740 puts traded 61,954 contracts, 41.9x open interest, for $7.6M in premium, and the $730 puts added 59,883 more. That’s protection bought in size, and a Z-score doesn’t erase it.
SPX is the harsher read. GEX is -5,562M, monthly GEX Z is -5.32, flow is 29% calls and 71% puts, and the $7700 put at delta -0.80 printed $20.2M in premium. The flip at $7,744.59 is 2.2% above the $7,580.07 spot.
QQQ is two-sided. Spot is $692.10, GEX is -127M with the flip at $721.82, and the weekly expiry shows 86 unusual strikes. The $685 puts traded 12,962 contracts for $8.0M while the $700 calls traded 8,182 for $4.0M.
Volatility Levels
IV-Rank reads 100% on AAPL, IREN, APP, PLTR and VST, 93% on QQQ and 91% on SPY. Implied volatility is elevated relative to the past ~7 months, and the options market is pricing in uncertainty. Only four symbols sit below 20%: CTAS at 0%, IFRA at 3%, ARES at 5% and DHR at 7%.
Flow Bias by Sector
Protective flow is dominating the tape in several sector ETFs. IGV shows 13% calls and 87% puts, XLI 17% and 83%, XLK 28% and 72%, XLP 32% and 68%. XLK also carries a 94% IV-Rank, so the hedging isn’t coming cheap.
The other side is narrower. XOP has 87% of premium in calls, RTX 89%, LMT 87% and HD 87%, so options positioning is skewed toward the upside in energy and defense while tech hedges.
GEX Flip Proximity
36 symbols closed within 2% of their GEX flip. RUT sits at 0.0%, MU at 0.2% ($886.14 against $887.59), USO, DIA and KKR at 0.2% each, and TSLA at 0.3% around $398.69. Dealer hedging dynamics shift near the flip level, and price tends to react.
GOOGL’s flip is $280.33 (0.4% away), AMZN’s monthly flip is $239.61 (0.2%) and NVDA’s monthly flip is $205.98 (0.4%).
Single-Name Standouts
MU carries PCR-Z +5.45 with 42% calls and 58% puts, spot pinned against the flip, and max pain at $925.00 well above the $887.59 close. The $870 puts alone printed $2.7M. I’m watching whether that max pain level starts to pull.
NVDA is the mirror image. The $207.50 calls traded 8,110 contracts, 53.7x open interest, for $2.1M, and the monthly PCR-Z of -2.15 reads as extreme call demand, contrarian bearish. Max pain is $215.00 against a $205.06 spot.
INTC put the same strike on both sides: the $65 calls traded 30,829 contracts for $8.6M and the $65 puts 26,200 for $6.4M. MSTR is one-directional, with 81% calls and 24,311 contracts at the $135 strike, 110.5x open interest.
BUG leads the put extremes at +10.78 with 94% of premium in puts, then VRTX +3.73, CRM +3.27, APP +2.84 and ROK +2.65. SLV at -2.11 is the lone call-side extreme.
Earnings Watch
Several names report within 10 days of the 2026-10-31 read. In 2 days: AAPL, PLTR, VRTX and ARES. SPCX is 3 days out; APP, HOOD, QCOM and ARM are 4 days out; IREN, VST, ROK, NET and DDOG are 5 days out; OXY is 9 days out.
Proximity matters because implied volatility expands into the print and event risk gets hedged ahead of it. AAPL shows it best: IV-Rank 100%, skew +19.1, $340 puts at 9,947 contracts for $5.4M and $355 calls at 15,063 for $4.8M.
APP leans the other way, with 15% calls and 85% puts at a $229.19 spot against $277.50 max pain. QCOM’s $175 puts took $7.7M. ARES is the odd one, with a compressed 5% IV-Rank, 86% calls and earnings in 2 days.
What I’m Watching Next
SPY holding below the $781.82 flip while the $740 and $730 put strikes stay heavy keeps the negative gamma read intact. A move back toward the flip or max pain at $769.00 would change what dealers have to hedge. SPX at $7,744.59 is the same test.
For the full strategy breakdown by symbol, I use the scanner at https://www.stockbotty.com/options-strategies/. I still can’t say whether the put Z-scores are exhaustion or the start of something heavier. The next session should show which one the strikes agree with.
Options data from the latest session close, covering 65 selected symbols from a 140-symbol scan. StockBotty trade journal.
For the full options flow dashboard with historical data and interactive charts, visit the Options Flow Analysis overview.