One Hundred Twelve Million Against a Four-Percent Cash Session
Reuters put the Nasdaq 100 down 6.4% on Thursday and said the session erased about $2.5 trillion of Nasdaq 100 market value on midterm-driven worries that tighter oversight could slow AI infrastructure buildout. Investing.com separately framed the S&P 500 down 4.4% and the Nasdaq 100 down more than 6%. Against that tape, a day that clears 112 million options contracts is not just a busy tape — it is a market-structure print that sits far above the clearinghouse's recent baseline.
The Options Clearing Corporation's October 2026 monthly report, published November 3, showed total options average daily volume of about 70.9 million contracts year to date and about 1.62 billion total options contracts for October. A 112 million day is roughly half again that October pace, which lines up with Investing.com's roughly 53% premium to October averages. Cboe's daily market statistics page is the usual public window into exchange-level volume splits once the official files post.
Puts Take Just Over Half as the Fear Gauge Spikes
Investing.com said puts made up just over half of Thursday's record volume. That mix matters for how the day is read: purchased puts are classic downside hedges, but the same contracts can also be sold by dealers and market makers who then hedge in the cash index and ETF complex. Reuters quoted Susquehanna's Chris Murphy describing a mix of fresh semiconductor and AI hedges alongside profit-taking on existing protection, and it said put premiums across index products ran about two times typical levels per Mercury Alerts.
The Cboe Volatility Index jumped to an intraday high of 28.36 and closed at 28.18, Reuters said — its biggest intraday jump in more than 18 months and an eight-month high. OptionsPilot covered that midday VIX spike past 25 and the overnight futures bounce into Friday's jobs print; today's clearing-volume figure is the volume side of the same stress session. Saxo Bank's November 6 options brief separately noted that Thursday's one-day volatility gauge roughly tripled and that same-day S&P 500 options had priced only about a 0.55% move before the index fell 4.36% — roughly eight times the prepaid same-day band.
Friday's Softening VIX After a Record Put-Heavy Day
Delayed Yahoo Finance data showed the VIX near 23.91 in Friday cash trading, down from Thursday's 28.18 close, as chip names and Nasdaq futures recovered into and after the October payrolls beat. A VIX that gives back several points the session after a record options day is the usual shape when the first hedging wave is done and dealers' short-gamma exposure into a one-way tape starts to fade — but it does not unwind the fact that Thursday's chain cleared a record. Index and ETF options (SPY, QQQ, SPX, and VIX products) often carry that stress into the next week's expirations even when the spot fear gauge softens.
For traders studying the session after the fact, the educational read is about capacity and positioning rather than a single ticker: record volume with puts slightly above half of the tape, a VIX close near 28, and an S&P move several times what same-day options had priced. Our implied volatility guide covers how index IV and single-name IV can diverge after a broad stress day, and the OCC options disclosure document explains the risks of standardized options.
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*By the OptionsPilot Editorial Team. Published November 6, 2026, 12:25 PM PT. This article is for education only and is not investment advice. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors.*
