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SentimentUpdated daily after close · as of 2026-08-20

Put/Call Ratio: CBOE Total, Equity & Index

The put/call ratio is put volume ÷ call volume — the classic market-wide contrarian sentiment gauge. A high ratio means heavy put buying (fear), which historically clusters near lows; a low ratio means complacency, near tops. Total, equity and index ratios with a 9-day average, updated daily from CBOE.

Today's reading

As of market close on August 20, 2026, the CBOE total put/call ratio is 0.78 (9-day average 0.84, the 19th percentile of its recent range) — light put buying — complacency, which as a contrarian gauge leans cautious. Equity put/call is 0.58 and index put/call 0.92. The put/call ratio is a contrarian indicator: high readings (fear) cluster near lows, low readings (complacency) near tops.

Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-20 · Open ↓
Source
CBOE daily market statistics — Total / Equity / Index put/call volume ratios. CBOE publishes each session's ratios the evening after the close, so the latest reading is always the prior session. That is the source's cadence and not a data failure
Methodology
Daily put÷call volume per CBOE; 9-day EMA; contrarian status by percentile of the smoothed Total vs its own history
Updates
Daily after US market close (~1pm PT)Last: 2026-08-20
Maintained & reviewed by Yuriy Matso — methodology shown on the page.
Total put/callCBOE · 2026-08-20
0.78
Extreme complacency
9-day avg 0.84 · 19th percentile of its recent range
Total
0.78
Equity
0.58
Index
0.92

Contrarian read: high put/call = fear (leans bullish), low = complacency (leans cautious). Equity is the cleaner speculative gauge; index runs high on hedging.

01

Put/call ratio over time

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Total put/call (daily) 9-day average fear / complacency bands S&P 500 (top pane)
02

The Manual — the put/call ratio

The 9-day average sits at 0.84 — the 19th percentile of our record (extreme complacency). The full owner's guide covers what the ratio actually counts, why equity and index readings live on different scales (0.58 vs 1.05 on average), the April 2025 fear spike and what followed, and the honest boundary of a series whose free history begins in 2025.

Read The Put/Call Ratio Manual →

How Put/Call Ratio Works

  1. 1
    Divide put volume by call volume
    Each day CBOE reports the number of put contracts traded divided by the number of call contracts. A ratio above 1.0 means more puts than calls changed hands; below 1.0 means calls dominated. We track the Total ratio (all CBOE options) plus the Equity-only and Index-only cuts.
  2. 2
    Smooth it with a 9-day average
    The daily ratio is noisy, so the headline read is its 9-day exponential moving average — the same smoothing shown on most put/call charts. It turns the day-to-day spikes into a sentiment trend you can actually act on.
  3. 3
    Read it as a contrarian gauge
    Put/call is a fade-the-crowd indicator. Heavy put buying (a high ratio) marks fear and has historically clustered near market lows; light put buying (a low ratio) marks complacency and clusters near tops. We label the current reading by where it sits in its own recent range — from Extreme complacency to Elevated fear.
  4. 4
    Separate equity from index
    Index put/call runs structurally higher than equity put/call because institutions buy index puts to hedge. The Equity ratio is the cleaner read on retail/speculative positioning; the Index ratio reflects hedging demand; the Total blends both. We also break out the SPX+SPXW ratio (S&P 500 index-options hedging, the institutional read) and the VIX put/call (positioning on volatility itself, which spikes around fear events).

Who Uses Put/Call Ratio

Contrarian Traders
The core use: fade sentiment extremes. A spike in the put/call ratio (fear) is a classic signal to look for a bounce; a sustained low ratio (complacency) is a caution flag near highs.
Market Timers
Watch the 9-day average for turns. A put/call ratio rolling over from an elevated peak has often coincided with the start of a relief rally; the smoothed line filters the daily noise that makes the raw ratio hard to time.
Risk Managers
Persistent complacency — a low ratio that stays low — is the backdrop in which selloffs catch the most people offside. It is not a timing trigger, but it tells you how crowded the bullish side has become.
Options Traders
Compare the equity and index ratios. A low equity ratio with a high index ratio means retail is leaning long while institutions hedge — a divergence worth watching at extremes.

Pro Tips

01
It is contrarian, not directional
High put/call is bullish-leaning and low is bearish-leaning — the opposite of how it reads at first glance. The crowd buys puts after the drop and calls after the rally; the ratio works because it captures that emotion.
02
Use the smoothed line for signals
The raw daily ratio whipsaws on expirations and single large trades. The 9-day average is what most practitioners actually watch — extremes in the smoothed line are far more reliable than a single hot print.
03
Equity is the cleaner sentiment read
The Total and Index ratios are inflated by institutional hedging in index options. For a read on speculative, retail-driven sentiment, the Equity put/call ratio is the purer gauge.
04
Extremes matter more than the level
There is no magic number — the meaningful signal is the ratio reaching the high or low end of its recent range, which is why we show the percentile rather than a fixed threshold.

Common Issues & Solutions

Why is the index ratio always above 1?▾
Index options are dominated by institutional hedging — funds buy index puts as portfolio insurance far more than they buy index calls — so the index put/call ratio runs structurally high (often well above 1.0). That is normal; judge it against its own history, not against 1.0.
Where does the data come from?▾
From CBOE's daily market-statistics page, which reports the Total, Equity and Index put/call volume ratios each session. We read the published figures, store the daily history, and compute the 9-day average and percentile ourselves.
Is a high put/call ratio bearish?▾
It looks bearish but reads bullish. A high ratio means traders are buying lots of protection — fear — which historically has marked points of capitulation rather than the start of further declines. Put/call is a contrarian indicator.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the put/call ratio?▾
The put/call ratio is total put option volume divided by total call option volume. Above 1.0 means more puts than calls traded (defensive/fearful); below 1.0 means calls dominated (bullish/complacent). CBOE publishes Total, Equity and Index versions daily, and it is one of the most-watched contrarian sentiment gauges.
Is a high put/call ratio bullish or bearish?▾
Contrarian-bullish. A high ratio means heavy put buying — fear — which historically clusters near market lows and rarely at the start of crashes. A low ratio means complacency and clusters near tops. The indicator works by fading the crowd, so high = lean bullish, low = lean cautious.
What is a normal put/call ratio?▾
The Total ratio typically hovers around 0.9–1.0, the Equity ratio lower (often 0.5–0.7), and the Index ratio higher (frequently above 1.2) because of institutional hedging. Because the baselines differ, the useful read is where today sits in each series' own recent range — which is why this page shows a percentile.
Why use the 9-day moving average?▾
The raw daily ratio is noisy — distorted by expirations and large single trades. A 9-day exponential moving average is the standard smoothing shown on most put/call charts; extremes in the smoothed line are far more reliable signals than any single day.
How often is it updated?▾
Daily, after the US market close, from CBOE's published daily market statistics. The 9-day average and percentile reflect the latest session.

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Last updated: 2026-08-20