Live OI Chart: NIFTY, Bank Nifty, SENSEX & Crude Oil Open Interest

It is the one reading to follow if you sell options, and it is built from every card on the page. Each card casts a vote from bullish to bearish: the Put-versus-Call OI balance for the session and the last 60 minutes (counted double), the OI build-up reading, the 45-minute OI unwinding reading, the PE − CE delta trend, the PCR trend and the trading range; a range-bound day with price inside its range tones the vote down. With both sides writing, Call OI above Put OI caps a rise at Sideways and Put OI above Call OI holds a fall at Sideways. No price moving averages are used. The result is one of five stances: Bullish, Sideways-bullish, Sideways, Sideways-bearish or Bearish, and the card lists what each card says and which ones disagree. A new stance must hold for 10 minutes before it is accepted, each stance lasts at least 20 minutes, and it moves one step at a time, so Bullish cannot jump straight to Bearish. Bullish and Sideways-bullish favour selling Puts below support; Bearish and Sideways-bearish favour selling Calls above resistance; Sideways favours selling both sides outside the trading zone. The first stance is given 27 minutes after the strikes are fixed (09:45 for NIFTY, Bank Nifty and SENSEX). Readings stay live until 45 minutes before the close (14:45 for NIFTY, Bank Nifty and SENSEX) and freeze from 14:46, because fresh positions are not taken that late. Every reading on the page follows the same timing and confirmation rules.

It is a gauge from −1 to +1 that shows which side has been writing more open interest. For a period it takes the net change in Put OI and in Call OI across the 21 tracked strikes and works out (Put change − Call change) ÷ (size of Put change + size of Call change). It is calculated for the whole session since the strikes were fixed (marked S on the gauge) and for the last 60 minutes (marked 60m), and the black marker is the average of the two. It is the biggest single input to the Seller’s stance.

Read it like this. +1: only bullish activity, with Puts being written while Call OI falls (Call writers covering). +0.5 to +1: strong Put writing, bullish. +0.15 to +0.5: Put writing ahead, leans bullish. −0.15 to +0.15: balanced. −0.5 to −0.15: Call writing ahead, leans bearish. −1 to −0.5: strong Call writing, bearish; −1 means Calls are being written while Put OI falls. When the 60m mark sits well away from S, the last hour has turned against (or is pushing harder than) the day as a whole. The gauge reads only the balance of writing, not price levels, so with both sides writing the stance still caps a rise at Sideways when Call OI is above Put OI, and holds a fall at Sideways when Put OI is above Call OI.

Open interest (OI) for 21 option strikes of the chosen instrument: the at-the-money (ATM) strike plus 10 strikes above and 10 below. NIFTY and SENSEX use their nearest weekly expiry; Bank Nifty and Crude Oil Mini use their nearest monthly options expiry (Bank Nifty no longer has weekly options). It shows total Call OI and Put OI, how much each changed every minute, the put-call ratio with its 45-minute trend (rising or falling against its 45-minute average), the trading range where the index has spent 70% of the day and whether that range is holding or moving, and the price of the ATM Call and Put, all against the underlying (the index, or the Crude Oil Mini futures price). Use the Instrument menu at the top of the chart to switch.

The first few minutes after the open are noisy. At 09:18 for NIFTY, Bank Nifty and SENSEX, and at 15:30 for Crude Oil Mini (most Indian traders trade it after the NSE and BSE close, and its OI barely moves before), the ATM strike is set from the underlying price and the same 21 strikes are followed all session, so every minute compares like with like. The chip at the top of the chart shows that ATM and the price it was based on.

Each row is a strike the index has traded through since the strikes were fixed, from the strike at or below the lowest recorded price to the strike at or above the highest (moves in the first minutes before that are left out, like every OI figure on the chart), with the strike prices on the right. The red bar is how much Call OI has been added at that strike since the strikes were fixed, the green bar the same for Put OI; bars growing to the right are additions, bars to the left of zero are unwinding. The dashed line is the index through the day, against the same price scale, with the time along the top.

The shaded band is the day’s trading zone. It is the band of strikes where the price has spent 70% of the session so far, widened where needed to take in support and resistance. A strike counts as support only where more Put OI than Call OI has been added at it, and support is the strongest of those; resistance is the strongest strike above it where more Call OI than Put OI has been added. Neighbouring strikes dominated by the same side, with at least half that writing, make up the support or resistance zone. Only when no strike has more Call OI added than Put OI (so there is no resistance yet) does the card check the pace of Call writing in 10-minute blocks: when Call writers have added OI in each of the last three blocks, each block more than the one before, it says Calls are building faster at that strike and it could become resistance for the day, even though Put writing there is still bigger. The same check is made on the Put side when there is no support yet. When the band where the price spends its time moves up or down (both edges moving the same way, not just widening) and stays moved for 10 minutes, the zone is redrawn: the current zone is shaded blue from the time it formed, and earlier zones stay on the chart in grey over the time they held, fainter the older they are. The strike in bold is where the price has spent the most time.

Unwinding means open positions are being closed, so OI falls. When Call OI falls sharply, call writers are covering their shorts, which usually happens when they expect the market to rise. When Put OI falls sharply, put writers are covering, which points to weakness.

It adds up only the falls in Call OI and in Put OI over the last 45 minutes, a rolling window in which the oldest minute drops out as each new one comes in, so no single minute decides it. The line it follows is Call unwinding minus Put unwinding. Call writers covering is bullish, so when that difference rises the reading moves towards bullish; when it is negative and falling, Put writers are covering more and the reading moves towards bearish. The score is half the balance now (the difference divided by everything unwound) and half its change over the last 15 minutes, read on the same five steps from Bullish to Bearish, and a very quiet 45 minutes reads Sideways. Like every reading, a change must hold for 10 minutes and lasts at least 20 minutes.

Every minute it adds up the minute-by-minute change in Call OI and in Put OI over the last 30 minutes: a rolling window that moves forward each minute and gives the net change over that half hour, not an average. Put OI being added or Call OI being closed is bullish pressure (writers expect support, or call writers are covering); Call OI being added or Put OI being closed is bearish. The score is the Put change minus the Call change, divided by the size of both, so it runs from +1 to −1: above +0.5 is Bullish, +0.15 to +0.5 Sideways-bullish, −0.15 to +0.15 Sideways, −0.5 to −0.15 Sideways-bearish and below −0.5 Bearish. When both sides are falling, whichever falls faster decides the reading, and a very quiet half hour reads Sideways. On top of the flows it applies three checks. Once Call OI’s high and Put OI’s low of the last hour are both at least 15 minutes old, the bearish push is over and the reading falls back to Sideways (the mirror applies to a bullish push). With both sides writing, Call OI above Put OI turns a Sideways-bullish read into Sideways because Call writers are capping a rise, and Put OI above Call OI does the same for a Sideways-bearish read. And when the index is back inside the day’s trading range while option premiums are decaying, a mild read becomes Sideways. Like every reading on the page, a change is only accepted after it has held for 10 minutes, each reading lasts at least 20 minutes, and it moves one step at a time.

They measure different things. Unwinding shows which side has been covering over the last 45 minutes; build-up shows where fresh positions are being written over the last half hour. For a trading view, follow the Seller’s stance at the top of the chart, which combines every card into one call and lists the ones that disagree; the other readings are the evidence behind it.

It starts at 0 when the strikes are fixed and adds up every minute’s OI change for the same 21 strikes: OI added counts up, OI unwound counts down. The Call line shows how much Call OI has been written (rising) or closed (falling) since the morning, and the Put line does the same for Puts. Put above Call means more Puts than Calls have been written over the day, which traders usually read as support building; Call above Put points to resistance.

It plots Put cumulative delta minus Call cumulative delta as one shaded area. Above zero, more Put OI has been added than Call OI since the morning; below zero, more Call OI has been added. Green (Support level increasing) means the line is above zero and its support trendline is intact. Light red (Support weakening) means it is still above zero but has broken below that trendline. Red (Resistance level coming down) means the line is below zero with its resistance trendline intact. Light green (Resistance weakening) means it is still below zero but has broken above that trendline. The colour resets when the line crosses zero clearly (by more than one swing size), so small wobbles around zero do not flip it. Unlike the other readings, this one follows the chart directly instead of waiting 10 minutes, so the colour always matches the side of zero the line is on and a trendline break shows as soon as it is confirmed.

A swing low or high only counts when the PE − CE line bounces from it by at least 1.75 times its typical one-minute move, so small wiggles are ignored, and nothing is marked in the first 8 minutes. The trendline is drawn from the outside, the way you would draw it by hand. Below zero it starts at the highest swing high since the line went negative and runs to the later swing high that keeps every other swing high on or below it, so it sits on top of the highs and re-adjusts as new highs form; it must be falling and touch at least three highs. Above zero the support trendline mirrors this under the swing lows. A break needs the line to stay beyond the trendline for 3 minutes in a row, and the colour changes as soon as that happens. A break that is undone within 5 minutes is treated as a blip and not shown, unless the line goes on to cross zero, so a brief poke through the line does not flash a different colour. Only the current trendline is shown. These settings are being reviewed against the archived sessions and may be fine-tuned.

The Call and Put prices of the strike that was ATM when the strikes were fixed, followed all session even if the market moves away. The straddle line (Call + Put) shows the combined premium, which falls as time passes and rises when the market makes a big move.

It combines two checks on the straddle price (ATM Call + Put) and its 15-minute running average, the orange dashed line. The first is the angle of the average: each minute the new value is compared with the one before, so the line is either rising (0 to 90 degrees) or falling (270 to 360 degrees). The second is whether the straddle is above or below the average. A rising average with the straddle above it means premiums are expanding and option buying is favoured, in the direction the market is moving (Calls when it rises, Puts when it falls). A falling average with the straddle below it means premiums are decaying and option selling is favoured. When the two checks disagree there is no clear edge. A change is only accepted after it has held for 10 minutes, with each reading lasting at least 20 minutes.

The card also shows which side is driving the move, how far the underlying is from the fixed ATM strike, and the straddle break-even range: strike ± straddle price, roughly the move the market is pricing in by expiry.

Data is collected once a minute — 09:18 to 15:30 for NIFTY, Bank Nifty and SENSEX, 15:30 to the MCX close (23:30, or 23:55 from November to March) for Crude Oil Mini — and the page refreshes itself. The collector runs on a timer that occasionally skips a minute; the next bar then covers two minutes. After the close the page keeps showing the last session.

Yes. Every session is archived after the close, and the Session menu at the top of the chart lists them. Pick a date to replay that day’s open interest, OI change, ATM prices and readings exactly as they ended, for NIFTY, Bank Nifty, SENSEX or Crude Oil Mini. It is a good way to see how the readings behaved on trending, sideways and expiry days. The latest session is the default and keeps updating live; past sessions do not change.

No. The readings are mechanical summaries of open-interest data, for education and research. They can be wrong and are not advice to buy or sell anything.