Learn · options market structure
What did options traders do during SPY's 4.4% drop on Nov 5, 2026?
They sold more index put premium than they bought. In SPX, SPY, QQQ and IWM prints of $50K or more during the regular session, about $3.04 billion of puts traded at or toward the bid against $2.34 billion at or toward the ask, while SPY fell from about 766.8 to 733.1. Put sales outweighed put purchases in every hour of the session.
| Hour (ET) | SPY at end | Puts bought | Puts sold | Calls bought | Calls sold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:30–10:00 | 753.97 | $183M | $263M | $71M | $41M |
| 10:00–11:00 | 742.49 | $506M | $803M | $240M | $111M |
| 11:00–12:00 | 742.39 | $492M | $581M | $283M | $242M |
| 12:00–1:00 | 737.07 | $279M | $367M | $123M | $80M |
| 1:00–2:00 | 736.49 | $330M | $344M | $112M | $128M |
| 2:00–3:00 | 739.75 | $247M | $285M | $191M | $155M |
| 3:00–4:00 | 733.66 | $302M | $398M | $187M | $109M |
SPX, SPY, QQQ and IWM options prints of $50K premium or more. Bought = traded at, above or toward the ask; sold = at, below or toward the bid; prints at the midpoint are left out. Side is inferred from the quote at the time of the print, so it is an estimate, and multi-leg spreads are included.
The day in numbers
SPY closed the prior session at 766.81, opened near 765 and was down about 4.4% at the close, near 733. VIX rose from about 16.6 to about 28. QQQ fell about 6.3% and IWM about 4.6%. Across the four index products, put premium sold exceeded put premium bought by roughly $700 million, and call premium bought exceeded call premium sold by roughly $340 million.
Two ways to read put selling on a down day
A put that trades at the bid can be a new short put, someone selling insurance after it got expensive and betting the drop slows. It can also be an existing put being sold to close, a hedge taking its profit. Tape data shows the side of the trade, not whether it opened or closed a position, so the honest reading is: a lot of the put activity was supply, not panic buying. The next day's open interest change helps separate the two.
Where the gamma map stood
At the open SPY sat at its largest 0DTE gamma strike, 765, and the strike with the largest dealer delta exposure was 745. By mid-morning price had cut through 745, dealer positioning estimates turned negative gamma (hedging that adds to moves), and the largest gamma strike moved down to 735. SPY spent most of the afternoon between roughly 733 and 740, within about 1% of that 735 strike.
What this does and does not say
This is a description of one session's positioning and trading, not a forecast. Heavy put selling into a drop has preceded both rebounds and further declines. GammaPulse publishes the tape and the levels; it does not publish a track record or signals.
Related
- What does negative gamma mean for the stock market?
- What are gamma walls in options?
- What does it mean when traders sell puts on a down day?
Education and market data, not investment advice. GammaPulse does not publish a track record or performance claims.