Risk-on tape: broad participation, conviction flow leans long.
A tape where the option book ran 2.4:1, Materials hogged the call book, and the dark-pool tape produced the day’s most-watched surprise.
What I noticed today
The first thing that jumped out was the lopsidedness of the option book. Call premium printed $45.61B against put premium of $19.12B — a 2.4:1 skew — and the P/C volume ratio held at 0.57 all session. The EOD cumulative net call premium closed at $310.8M, which is the tell I pay attention to. Tape participants were paying for upside through the bell. Whether that conviction holds tomorrow is a separate question, but the read on today was clean.
What stood out next was the sector tape. Materials (XLB) ran $13.7M in call premium against $353.9K in puts — a net of $13.4M that led the heatmap. Technology (XLK) was the second-tier read at $8.9M net, with a 2.2:1 call-to-put ratio.
The cracks were in financials and consumer staples. XLF inverted with $4.4M call against $11.2M put for a net of -$6.8M, and XLP did the same at -$207.6K. Defense was selective today, not broad — the tape didn’t hedge everything, it hedged the cyclicals.
Single-name aggregate flow lined up as SPX ($11.6M), QQQ ($4.3M), MU ($3.3M) at the top of the notable-flow book. Where the index complex (SPX, SPXW, SPY, QQQ, IWM) shows up in this list is the part I tag and watch the next session — index-side flow doesn’t move like single-name flow.
And then the dark pool tape: NVDA at $1.40B in mega-print activity, up 978% from prior session — the single biggest day-over-day surge today. SPY ran $3.41B with 23 mega-prints (each ≥100K shares). The NVDA print is the one I want to see tomorrow: if it sustains, it’s a theme; if it fades, today was a one-day institutional rebalance.
By the numbers
- Call premium $45.61B
- Put premium $19.12B
- Call/Put skew 2.4:1
- P/C volume 0.57
- EOD net call $310.8M
- Scenario BULL
Cumulative end-of-day net call premium closed at $310.8M. Tape closed at session highs (steady accumulation).
Sector heatmap
| Sector | Call prem | Put prem | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Materials (XLB) | $13.7M | $353.9K | $13.4M |
| Technology (XLK) | $16.3M | $7.4M | $8.9M |
| Industrials (XLI) | $6.0M | $268.3K | $5.8M |
| Consumer Discretionary (XLY) | $3.7M | $796.8K | $2.9M |
| Utilities (XLU) | $4.3M | $2.5M | $1.8M |
| Energy (XLE) | $7.9M | $6.6M | $1.3M |
| Health Care (XLV) | $1.7M | $848.6K | $850.5K |
| Real Estate (XLRE) | $160.1K | $2.7K | $157.4K |
| Communication Services (XLC) | $53.5K | $105.2K | -$51.7K |
| Consumer Staples (XLP) | $484.4K | $692.0K | -$207.6K |
| Financials (XLF) | $4.4M | $11.2M | -$6.8M |
12 notable data points
- Call premium printed $45.61B against put premium of $19.12B — a 2.4:1 skew across the session.
- End-of-day cumulative net call premium closed at $310.8M — the option tape paid for upside through the bell.
- Materials (XLB) net call premium hit $13.4M — the largest one-sector net in today’s heatmap.
- Real Estate (XLRE) posted a 59.6:1 call-to-put ratio on $160.1K of call premium — the most call-skewed sector in the book.
- Financials (XLF) inverted at -$6.8M and Consumer Staples (XLP) at -$207.6K — defense was selective, not broad.
- Today’s largest single-trade event was a SPX $7,095 call dated 2026-05-15 at $8.3M in premium.
- Aggregate notable flow on SPX totaled $11.6M across 7 trades — the top single-name in the notable-flow book.
- MU $795 call expiring 2026-05-22 printed $2.9M on a 4.3x volume-to-OI ratio.
- NVDA dark pool ran $1.40B with 10 mega-prints (≥100K shares), up 978% from prior session — the biggest day-over-day surge in the dark-pool tape.
- SPY dark pool held 23 mega-prints on $3.41B premium — mega-print count is the line and it stayed elevated.
- Combined semi-complex notable premium reached $5.6M — the heaviest single-theme concentration in the notable-flow tape today.
- Combined inverse-ETF and volatility-hedge notable premium was effectively zero today — the tape did not pay for protection.
Dark pool tell
| Ticker | Total prem | Mega-prints (≥100K) | vs prior |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPY | $3.41B | 23 | ▼ -13.81% |
| NVDA | $1.40B | 10 | ▲ +977.54% |
| AAPL | $1.26B | 8 | ▼ -44.27% |
| MSFT | $1.04B | 3 | ▼ -52.24% |
| AMZN | $982.7M | 2 | ▲ +12.73% |
| QQQ | $877.6M | 2 | ▼ -29.21% |
| TSLA | $600.0M | 3 | ▼ -56.62% |
| META | $453.9M | 2 | ▼ -16.18% |
| GOOGL | $397.8M | 2 | ▼ -31.42% |
| AVGO | $332.2M | 1 | ▼ -37.19% |
What I’m watching tomorrow
- Watch Financials (XLF) at -$6.8M net option premium: another inverted session would extend today’s defensive read; a swing back to net-positive would call it a one-day shakeout.
- NVDA dark pool follow-through. Mega-print activity ran +978% to $1.40B today. If tomorrow holds above that band it’s a theme; if it fades back to the prior baseline, today was a one-day institutional rebalance and nothing more.
- Follow-through. If leaders continue making higher highs into tomorrow’s close, the risk-on read confirms.
Method note
Flow and dark-pool data sourced from our analytical pipeline. MPI score and regime classifier are our internal composite; daily synthesis is AI-assisted from those inputs.