Option Big Flows: reading a large ticket without turning it into a signal

What the tool shows

Option Big Flows displays on your chart the large options premiums as they print: call or put, buy or sell, opening or closing, premium in dollars, expiration. On SPX, thanks to Cboe participant data, the direction and the nature of the transaction are observed, not guessed.

The only useful question

A large ticket is not a directional signal. A fund buying $7M of puts may be betting on a decline, protecting a $2 billion portfolio it is keeping, or unwinding a short position. You will not know. The question that matters to you is not "what does this fund think?" but "what will the market maker on the other side have to do?"

• Put bought to open, large, near the money, short expiration: the market maker is now short gamma on that strike and has to sell ES into the decline. The day's gamma has just shifted, the pocket forms at that strike.
• Put sold to close: the negative gamma pocket closes, the market maker buys back part of his hedge. The amplifying flow at that strike weakens.