Call Buying and Rising Volatility Make This Stock Rally Unusual
A rally that lifts price and implied volatility at the same time is not the usual playbook. In calmer regimes, equities grind higher while option premiums decay and volatility drifts lower. When price and IV rise together, the market often signals flow-driven dynamics rather than steady fundamental accumulation. In our view, the mix of same-day options, large directional call prints, and tight intraday hedging feedbacks can create that unusual pairing.
The conditions for it are firmly in place. According to Cboe, zero-days-to-expiry (0DTE) options went from roughly 5% of SPX option volume in 2016 to about 43% year to date in 2023, averaging around 50% in August 2023. The absolute backdrop is also large: Cboe reported new records in Q2/June 2026 across its U.S. options exchanges, with quarterly ADV near 21.9 million contracts and June around 23.0 million contracts, magnifying the potential for flow to affect spot-vol interactions (Cboe derivatives metrics).
At the trade level, prints can be immense. On May 29, 2026, MarketChameleon flagged a same-day SPY call sweep of 217,134 contracts, a single strike and expiry in one session. Such bursts can pull dealers into short-gamma hedging, forcing them to buy into strength and lifting both price and IV if option demand also bids vol.
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