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Here's something worth paying attention to: even if you've never traded an option in your life, the options market might be telling you more about where stocks are headed than anything else.
That was a key theme at the MarketDash Fintech Day & Awards 2025 in New York on November 10, where options experts explained why the explosion in trading volume has made watching options flow essential for every type of investor.
The options market has evolved far beyond simple calls and puts. Today's traders use options for income generation, leverage, and hedging strategies that didn't exist a decade ago. The result? Trading volume has absolutely exploded.
Mat Cashman from The Options Industry Council said the number of contracts cleared in 2025 looks absurd compared to ten years ago. The real win, though, is that the ecosystem has managed to handle this surge safely and stably. The challenge now is continuing that evolution.
SpotGamma founder Brent Kochuba put it bluntly: the growth in options volume makes watching flows more important today than ever before. "What's happening now is the flows are so dominant," he explained.
Here's where it gets interesting. Kochuba argues that options markets can tell you what's likely to happen before it does. Whether it's a government shutdown ending, CPI data coming in hot or cold, or how earnings calls might land—the options market acts as a prediction market.
"The options market is a prediction market," Kochuba said. Even if you never trade options yourself, watching what's happening there gives you critical insight into where the smart money thinks things are going. "That can be really informative to traders."
Anthony Rousseau from TradeStation highlighted how lower costs have opened the door for retail investors to participate in options. But it's not just about cheaper trades—it's about access to technology and tools that give everyday investors a real edge.
Cashman noted that 2020 marked a turning point. Retail investors didn't just start buying options; they started getting educated. They learned about flows, leverage strategies, and how to actually use these instruments effectively. "The retail trader learns by doing," Cashman observed.
The panel also tackled zero-day-to-expiration (0DTE) options, which have created entirely new strategic possibilities. Kochuba pointed out that short-term options give investors more ways to hedge and more opportunities to capitalize on market rallies.
Rousseau used a surfing analogy to describe the market dynamic: each wave is different, and every day in the market brings something new. With 0DTE options, speed matters. Investors need their strategies locked in quickly because the window of opportunity opens and closes fast.
The bottom line? The options market has grown too large and too influential to ignore. Whether you're trading options or not, the flows reveal where the market expects to go next. And in today's environment, that intelligence is worth its weight in gold.
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