# S&P 500 Put Trading Tops 4.4 Million Contracts as Index Falls 1.1%

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/35203
Published: 2026-10-20T01:54:09.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-20T01:54:09.000Z
Section: Investing

> Calls totaled 3,013,757 contracts on Oct. 16, giving the session a put-to-call volume ratio of 1.46.

Put volume in S&P 500 Index options reached 4,402,613 contracts on Oct. 16 as the benchmark lost 1.1%, leaving puts ahead of calls during the decline.

Across SPX and SPXW options, 3,013,757 call contracts traded. Combined volume was 7,416,370 contracts, with 1.46 puts traded for every call. The ratio measures contracts changing hands; it does not establish why traders made those trades.

The S&P 500 Index ended at 7,659.44 at 4 p.m. ET (20:00 UTC), finishing 84.62 points below its previous close. SPX and SPXW are options tied to the index.

Applying the $100 SPX contract multiplier and the closing index level to the day's put volume yields an estimated $3.37 trillion in aggregate underlying notional. That figure represents an estimate of the index value associated with the traded contracts, not the option premiums paid. It uses the closing level for the full day's volume rather than the index level at each trade.