107K march 20 Put contracts were traded today (with VIX not moving much). a few days ago ~100 contracts were trading daily as I recall. what does it all mean?
Are you watching these real time? Have you ever traded the futures? What are you relying on for data?
Clearly, whoever is selling the put is betting that the VIX will soar. That's kinda obvious ain't it, considering that the market was tumbling down all last week. Now with the market rebounding, the contracts have dried up. Dig it?
one way to look at it is that VIX is getting close to 20 strike (21.31 -1.28) and this makes march 20 put active. it is still strange to me that no contracts were traded in the morning and then huge blocks just swept the asks.
It could be put contracts being closed, selling to close puts wont have as big of an impact on volatility as put buying. The majority could be expecting a bounce of some sort.
sorry i quoted the "cash" index. i should have said so. it seems today the cash index has more impact on the futures put options than VIX futures. of course, i am not understanding any of it, just noticing something that looks unusual for naked eye.
Open interest is only 10K so it was definitely an opening trade, however there's no way of knowing which side initiated the trade or why.