Price & Market BehaviorExtended setExperimentalNew

skew-panic reversal

Updated dailyData needs: mediumlong onlyshort onlylong short

In plain terms

When put options spike in price and fear is high right after a drop, buy the bounce; when calls are euphoric after a run-up, fade it.

How it works

Combines the 25-delta risk-reversal (put-vs-call skew) and IV rank into a panic/complacency gauge and gates it on recent price stress. Extreme put-skew plus high IV rank right after a short selloff is treated as a capitulation/insurance-premium reversal; extreme call-skew plus low IV rank after a run-up is treated as a complacency fade.

Live results

0 times picked on its own · 101 times inside a blend (100 beat the stock) · updated 2026-07-06

This strategy is a frequent ingredient in blends that combine a few strategies on one stock. It has contributed to 101 such blended picks (100 of which beat simply holding the stock). Picking it on its own is only one of the ways it shows up.

How its picks scored vs. buy & hold

Each pick is graded on a recent year it was never tuned on, against simply owning the same stock

Where its edge concentrates

Share of picks in each company-size group that beat buy & hold

How often it trades

Active vs. patient. Bars on the left mean it waits for rare setups; bars on the right mean it trades often

Return vs. buy & hold

How much each pick beat or trailed simply owning the stock over the test year (extreme microcap moves trimmed)

Loading substrate evidence…

Data dependencies

Options surface daily
End-of-day OPRA option chains used by IV-skew family.
Daily prices
Adjusted-close OHLCV for every US-listed ticker; primary price feed.

Expected edge

Buying into option-market panic after a selloff (and fading complacency after a rally) should harvest the over-pricing of crash insurance and short-term mean reversion.

Related families

cross-sectional options stress contrarianPrice & Market Behavior

Compare a stock's option fear gauge to every other optionable stock today, and buy the most fearful after a dip or fade the most complacent after a rally.

Explore skew-panic reversal on alphactor.ai

See which tickers this family is currently firing on, with live signals and rankings.

Open universe with this filter →Browse all 573 families