A put-call ratio for crude oil, reported by a third-party source as of 2 November 2026, is one of the figures traders look at while going through a crude oil option chain. It is an outside figure and not a number published by the Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), so traders treat it as one more reading and not as a final answer.
Such a ratio compares the activity in put options with the activity in call options. Individuals trading crude are using it to understand where the other participants have placed their positions.
The option chain itself is a table that lists the call strikes and the put strikes side by side, one row for each strike price. MCX works under the oversight of SEBI, and the chain shows what is being traded on that regulated exchange.
What each column on the chain records
The strike price is the fixed level at which an option can be exercised, and every row of the chain is built around one such level. Next to it, the premium column shows the price at which that call or put is trading which is the amount a buyer pays to the seller.
Open interest is the number of option contracts at a strike that are still open and have not been closed. The change in open interest shows how many contracts were added or removed during the day.
Traders often read heavy open interest at a strike as a possible zone of support or resistance. The put-call ratio mentioned earlier compares put activity with call activity across these strikes, and it is read along with the columns and not in place of them.
Why the crude benchmark and contract size matter
MCX crude futures use the WTI crude oil of the NYMEX division of CME Group as the benchmark underlying. Because of this, price movements in the overseas market reach the crude oil option chain in India, and the premiums on the chain change along with them.
The current MCX options PDF is the place where this rule sits and traders watch it before each new series begins.
