Relative option volume metrics provide far more valuable insights than absolute values.

Knowing that an option traded 100,000 contracts only tells us that the option is active. To determine whether that activity is usual or unusual, we need to compare the volume against:

The options open interest (OI)
The total option chain volume

Let's screen for unusual options activity.

Screening for Unusual Options Activity

We go to Optionlegs and run a screener with the following filters:

Underlying type = Stocks (exclude ETFs)
Option type = Calls
Open Interest (OI) ≥ 100
Volume / OI ≥ 10 (the option traded more than 10x its existing open interest today)
Volume / Chain ≥ 0.1 (the option represents at least 10% of the total option chain volume)

Results

Here are some results as of 2026-05-10.

Filters for screening unusual options

One ticker immediately caught my attention: INO.

Let's take a closer look.

INO stock

We can see that Inovio Pharmaceuticals is a micro-cap biotechnology company with an upcoming earnings report scheduled for May 13, 2026, only three days away.
Plus, we see a news line "Deadly hantavirus cruise ship outbreak sparks speculative rally in vaccine developer stock".

Looking at the Option Curves

Next, we inspect the option curves at Optionlegs Curves.

INO curve OTM Volume / OI

We select the OTM Volume / OI metric to analyze out-of-the-money volume relative to open interest.

Puts are displayed on the left side of the price line
Calls are displayed on the right side of the price line

We can clearly see that the $2 strike has unusually high Volume / OI ratios across multiple expirations:

33 DTE
39 DTE
47 DTE
103 DTE

This tells us that the $2 strike experienced exceptionally strong demand during the last trading session.

Checking Open Interest

Now let's inspect open interest to understand which strikes traders are already holding.

INO Put OI

The put open interest does not reveal anything particularly interesting.

INO Call OI

The call side is much more notable.

We see massive open interest concentrated around the $2 strike, especially on longer-dated expirations. And call options OI is at least 10 times of put options OI.

Conclusion

The $2 call options on INO experienced unusually high demand, and that demand accelerated significantly during the latest trading session ahead of the company's earnings report and hantavirus outbreak.

This type of relative-volume analysis can help identify where speculative positioning and trader attention are rapidly increasing.

Posts tagged #activity

Finding Unusual Volume in Options