# Net Drift

Cumulative call and put premium through the session, the net between them, and the underlying, so you can see which side is leaning.

**Net Drift** tracks the session's call premium and put premium as two running
totals, with the net (calls minus puts) and the underlying on the same chart.
A volume subchart below it shows net contracts the same way. It answers one
question: which side is the options market leaning on today, and is that lean
growing?

## What it shows

| Element | What it is |
|---|---|
| **Calls** (green) | Running call premium for the session |
| **Puts** (red) | Running put premium for the session |
| **Net** (green above zero, red below) | Calls minus puts |
| **Underlying** (blue, right axis) | The price over the same minutes |
| **Net volume** (subchart) | Call contracts minus put contracts |

In **Details** you can choose the expiries (0DTE, 1DTE or up to 90 days), the
bucket size, moneyness, and filters that leave out very large trades or
low-delta contracts. Click the chart to list the trades inside that bucket.
**Signed flow** counts premium bought as positive and sold as negative, so a
line can go below zero; **Gross flow** shows total activity only.

Marked **(Beta)** in the widget picker: it is newer, and some of the options
data behind it can lag the live market by several minutes.

## Practical application

![Net Drift widget, illustrative example: puts build while calls are sold, then NQ slides](https://q-bitf.com/docs-img/net-drift-puts-lead.png "Illustrative example data, not a real session. NQ 0DTE, signed flow, 1-minute buckets: net call premium ends at -$46M while price falls 191.52 points (-0.71%).")

**Reading it.** In this example calls and puts trade evenly for the first hour,
and net peaks at only $756K at 10:27 AM ET. From about 11:00 the lines split:
put premium keeps climbing to $32M while call premium turns negative and ends
at -$14M, so the net line falls through zero and keeps widening to -$46M. Price
holds near 26,930 through lunch, then breaks lower after 1 PM and closes the
session at 26,712. Net volume tells the same story at -46K contracts.

**What it means.** Traders were buying puts and selling calls for two hours
before price moved. A net line that widens steadily, rather than in one spike,
is a lean that is building, not a single hedge.

**How to use it.**

- **Net falling while price is flat:** pressure is building against the
  current level. Be careful buying dips, and watch the nearest support.
- **Net and price moving together:** the flow confirms the move; trends are
  more likely to continue.
- **Net reversing while price keeps going:** the move is losing its support;
  tighten stops.
- **One large jump, then flat:** check the trades in that bucket. A single big
  trade can be a hedge, not a view. The trade-size filter takes it out.

Read Net Drift for direction and change, not as a total of all premium traded
that day. It is not available in Replay.