Options Skew
How one-sided an options build is — the degree to which volume tilts toward puts or calls. In the context of informed accumulation, heavy one-sided skew is the direction hint sitting on top of a magnitude signal.
TL;DR: Options skew is how lopsided the flow is. When option buying piles up overwhelmingly on one side — nearly all puts, or nearly all calls — that one-sidedness hints at direction.
An informed accumulation flag tells you a big move is coming (magnitude). Skew adds the likely side: a build that's almost all out-of-the-money puts leans bearish; an all-call build leans bullish. It works because someone positioning ahead of a known event buys the side they expect to pay off, rather than hedging both ways. See also the put/call ratio.
Skew is a lean, not a lock — it reads the direction of the positioning, not the outcome. Extreme historical examples include PRAX's ~173:1 put skew before a trial failure and INO's mirror, a bullish call bubble that later deflated. Full explainer: Reading Put/Call Skew.
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