Unusual Options Activity Today
Ranked by open interest that actually increased — positions opened, not closed. Volume alone cannot tell those apart. Free, no account.
Session of 2026-08-28. $63.24B of notional was opened across 375 underlyings, 66% of it on the call side.
Biggest single positions opened
One strike, one expiry. Open interest rose by this many contracts, so these were entered rather than closed out.
| Underlying | Side | Strike | Expiry | Contracts added | Notional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NVDA | Call | $200 | 2027-01-15 | +188,333 | $3.77B |
| NVDA | Call | $235 | 2026-09-04 | +125,068 | $2.94B |
| NVDA | Call | $245 | 2026-09-04 | +110,437 | $2.71B |
| GOOGL | Call | $375 | 2026-10-16 | +52,386 | $1.96B |
| GLDETF | Put | $413 | 2026-08-28 | +39,664 | $1.64B |
| GLDETF | Put | $408 | 2026-08-28 | +38,319 | $1.56B |
| GOOGL | Call | $410 | 2026-10-16 | +30,514 | $1.25B |
| IWMETF | Put | $286 | 2026-09-18 | +24,725 | $707M |
| SPYETF | Put | $770 | 2026-08-28 | +7,420 | $571M |
| SMHETF | Put | $450 | 2026-09-04 | +12,175 | $548M |
| SPYETF | Call | $771 | 2026-08-28 | +7,058 | $544M |
| SPYETF | Put | $768 | 2026-08-28 | +6,967 | $535M |
Biggest new positioning by underlying
All strikes and expiries summed per name, counting only contracts whose open interest increased.
Largest new call-side positioning
Notional opened on calls. On index and sector ETFs this is often overwriting or hedging, not a directional bet.
Largest new put-side positioning
Notional opened on puts. Heavy put opening on ETFs usually reads as portfolio hedging rather than a view on that fund.
How to read these numbers
Open interest, not volume. A contract can trade a million times and leave open interest unchanged — that is the same position being passed around. Open interest rising means new risk was actually put on. Everything here is filtered on that.
Notional is size, not conviction. Notional is contracts x 100 x strike. It measures how much underlying the position references, not how much cash was paid. A far out-of-the-money call shows a large notional for a small premium.
ETFs are hedges more often than bets. Large put opening on SPY, QQQ or GLD is usually portfolio insurance, not a forecast for that fund. Index flow and single-name flow deserve different readings, which is why they are labelled here.
This is end of day. Open interest is only final after the close, so this is the prior session. Nothing here is an intraday feed, and nothing here is a prediction.
Method and source
Built from end-of-day options data across the tracked US options universe. For each contract we compare open interest against the previous session and keep only the increases.
Notional = contracts added x 100 x strike.
A name appears only if at least one of its contracts increased in open interest.
Market-wide figures are suppressed entirely when fewer than 50 underlyings report — a thin sample cannot describe a market.
ETFs are marked rather than removed. Their flow is real hedging activity and often the story of the session.
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