⚖ Dollar Skew — which side costs more, in dollars
The usual skew number says "puts cost 5 vol points more than calls". Dollar Skew (the Adj$ line) asks the same question in dollars: at the same distance from the price, does the call or the put cost more? Dollars are what a trade is actually paid in — and the answer can differ.
💡 One rule for the whole page
Positive (+) = the call side is richer (costs more). Negative (−) = the put side is richer.
A rung is a pair: a call above the price and a put below it at about the same distance. Rung 1 is the at-the-money straddle.
A rung is a pair: a call above the price and a put below it at about the same distance. Rung 1 is the at-the-money straddle.
⚠ A plus is not "bullish" — the page is positive by arithmetic
Even a ticker with no opinion at all has a call $10 above the price that costs more than the put $10 below, for two reasons that have nothing to do with bulls or bears: interest (options are priced off the forward, which sits above the price) and the fact that a stock can double but cannot go below zero. Both grow with time, so longer expiries look "call-rich". That is the floor. The By-expiry table shows the floor and skew adds — the part that is left, which is the real reading.
New words? Glossary. The top strip works as on every ticker page.
In 30 seconds
- Read ATM straddle and Rung breadth with their z: is the dollar lean unusual?
- Compare with 25Δ skew: do vol points and dollars agree?
- In By expiry, read skew adds for the expiry you would trade.
Controls
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| wing | OTM (call above the price, put below — use this) or ITM (call below, put above). ITM is not a second opinion: it reads "interest minus the OTM wing", so it shows calls richer on almost every stock and moves opposite to OTM. |
| keep rungs within ± | Only rungs within this % of the price (5 / 10 / 15 / 25 %). |
| rungs shown | How many rungs per expiry (default 12). |
The controls redraw today's ladder and the By expiry table. The five tiles and the stored lines always use OTM, ±25 %, all expiries.
The tiles
| Tile | How to read it |
|---|---|
| ATM straddle | By what % the at-the-money call is richer (+) or the put richer (−). With z. |
| Net richness | Total dollar difference over every expiry and rung. Dominated by long-dated options (they carry the most time value). |
| Rung breadth | Net number of rungs where calls are richer (+) or puts (−), and "X % of N rungs call-rich". |
| 25Δ skew 30d | The same question in vol points, for comparison. |
| Front expiry | The nearest expiry, its IV and its skew. |
| ATM straddle richness (nearest expiry) | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 to +5 % | Normal: even with no view the maths gives a small call tilt on a short expiry. |
| above +10 % | More than the arithmetic on a near expiry. Check the z and "skew adds" before calling it upside demand. |
| below 0 % | The put is richer at the money — usually a dividend before expiry or a hard-to-borrow stock, not bears. |
These bands are for the nearest expiry. On longer expiries the same number is much higher from interest alone — never read a far row against this table.
🎓 Pro tipCompare rung breadth with net richness. If breadth says "puts richer on most rungs" but net dollars say "calls richer", a few long-dated call rungs dominate the dollars. The near-term picture — what you would actually trade — is the breadth one.
The stored lines
Over time: ATM straddle richness % (shown), net richness $ and net rung breadth (click the legend chips), against the price. The dollar line grows with the stock's price, so use the % and the breadth line to compare periods.
Today's ladder
Three tiles (ATM straddle of the nearest expiry, net richness of the rungs shown with voting rungs vs faded ones, the widest rung), then a chart: x = distance from the price in %, y = call value minus put value in $, one line per expiry.
| Line shape | Meaning |
|---|---|
| above zero | Calls richer at that distance. |
| rising with distance | The market pays up for upside tails (far calls). |
| falling with distance | The market pays up for downside tails (far puts) — common for stocks. |
| one expiry very different | An event or a special demand in that expiry. |
💡 "No vote" for cheap optionsOptions priced in single cents are faded and get no vote — a 1-cent difference on a 2-cent option would look like 50 %.
By expiry
Click a row to list its rungs in the "every rung" table.
| Column | How to read it |
|---|---|
| rungs | How many pairs voted ("+N thin" = too cheap to judge). |
| ATM % | How much richer the at-the-money call is. Mostly interest: it climbs steadily with days to expiry. |
| carry /yr | The yearly rate that ATM % implies (interest − dividend − borrow). Near today's interest rate = nothing special; much lower or negative = a dividend or a hard-to-borrow stock. Blank under 7 days. |
| net $ | Call minus put over the rungs, in dollars. |
| flat-smile floor | What the same rungs would read if the options held no opinion. |
| skew adds | net $ minus the floor. This is the reading. + = calls bid beyond the arithmetic · − = puts bid (downside protection). On the ITM wing the sign is inverted. |
| net rungs · bar | Call-rich minus put-rich rungs, and the share. |
🎓 Pro tipCompare skew adds here with skew adds in Delta Tilt → What delta costs. The raw columns of the two pages point in opposite directions on every stock (this one call-rich, that one put-dear) because their floors have opposite signs. With the floors removed they normally say the same thing.
Every rung
| Column | How to read it |
|---|---|
| call · put | The paired strikes. |
| call mid · put mid | The quoted mid prices. |
| call δ · put δ | The deltas used for the adjustment. |
| call adj · put adj | Time value adjusted to the midpoint of the two strikes that bracket the price (spot almost never sits exactly between two strikes, and that alone would make one side look richer). |
| net $ | call adj − put adj. + = call richer. |
| rich % | The same as a %. "tick noise" = too cheap to judge; "under intrinsic" = a stale quote. |
A routine that works
- Read the straddle and breadth tiles with their z.
- Compare with the 25Δ skew: do vol points and dollars agree?
- Do not read direction into it: a "calls richer" day did not predict an up move across the library.
- In By expiry read skew adds for the expiry you would trade.
- Use it for structure: sell the richer side, buy the cheaper one (a put spread when puts are rich, or a risk reversal).