Market lesson · Market lessons
What a put sweep before a drop looks like
Most flow is routine. Some is not.
Most options prints are hedges or covered positions. What stands out is unusual size on a specific strike in a ticker that does not normally see much activity. A large sweep at the ask on a near-term put means someone paid up to get those puts filled quickly.
Four parts that tell you what to check.
Part 1: the ticker, strike, and expiration. Part 2: SWEEP AT THE ASK means urgency, not a passive limit order. Part 3: $1.2M premium shows dollar commitment. Part 4: VOL 4,200 vs OI 1,150 means volume is 3.6x open interest, so this is new money, not a closing position.
This one is an animated diagram in the app. See it in Vero.
Context is everything.
A single large print means little on its own. Multiple put sweeps on the same strike over a short window, in a quiet ticker, suggests someone positioned ahead of an event. Compare the sweep size to the ticker's average daily options volume. Five times normal is worth attention.
A normally quiet mid-cap sees $1.8M in put sweeps at a near-term strike over 20 minutes. What makes this notable?
Show the answer
C. The size relative to the ticker's normal volume, and the urgency of sweeping at the ask. Absolute size matters less than context. A $1.8M sweep in a ticker that normally sees $200K daily is a 9x outlier. That is the signal.