Volume

The number of option contracts traded during the day — a gauge of how active a strike is right now.

Volume is the number of option contracts that have actually changed hands during a given trading session. It resets to zero at the start of every day, which makes it a snapshot of how much attention a particular strike and expiration is getting right now, not a running total like open interest.

In practice, traders lean on volume to judge whether a contract can be entered and exited cleanly. Say you want to buy a call on a stock and you notice the strike you like has traded 3,000 contracts today while the strike above it has traded only 4. The busier strike will almost always give you tighter bid-ask spreads and a fair fill, while the quiet one might cost you a chunk just to get in and out.

A common mistake is reading high volume as a bullish signal on its own. Volume tells you something is active, not which direction the smart money is leaning. A single large block can inflate the number, and heavy put volume can just as easily be a hedge as a bet. Treat it as a liquidity gauge first, and confirm any directional story with other evidence.

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All options terms

Call Put Strike price Premium Expiration In the money (ITM)At the money (ATM)Out of the money (OTM)Intrinsic value Time value (extrinsic)Delta Gamma Theta Vega Implied volatility (IV)Open interest Assignment Exercise Spread Break-even Probability of profit (POP)Assignment risk / early assignment LEAPS Naked (uncovered) option Rho Historical volatility (HV)Bid-ask spread Moneyness Covered call Cash-secured put Vertical spread Iron condor Straddle Strangle Rolling Margin Max pain American-style option European-style option Contract multiplier Debit vs credit Volatility skew The Greeks Underlying Hedge Leverage Expected move Notional value Protective put Collar Butterfly spread Iron butterfly Calendar spread Diagonal spread Credit spread Debit spread Bull call spread Bear put spread Ratio spread Synthetic position The wheel strategy Poor man’s covered call (PMCC)Box spread Put-call parity Pin risk IV crush IV rank / IV percentile Ex-dividend date Deep in the money Weeklys 0DTE (zero days to expiration)Order types (to open / to close)Buying power reduction Cash settlement Market maker Slippage Mid price Black-Scholes model

Educational use only. Quotes are delayed ~15 minutes and nothing here is financial advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss.