How to Read an 8-Cell Options Money Flow Matrix: $NVDA Example and Signal Guide

The 8-cell matrix is how a day of unusual options flow gets decomposed. Every flagged trade falls into one of 8 buckets: 4 action+type combinations (bought calls, bought puts, sold puts, sold calls) × 2 execution styles (sweep = urgent, block = negotiated). Reading it means ranking the cells by signal strength, then watching the derived metrics for trend.

The hierarchy — strongest to weakest signal:

The reading protocol (5 steps):

1. Find the dominant cells. Buying cells are continuation bets — the buyer pays premium and needs movement. Selling cells are premium collection — the seller profits if price does not breach the strike. Heavy put-selling = institutions willing to own at that level; heavy call-selling = willing to sell there.
2. Check sweep share (sweep ÷ total premium). >0.7 = urgency-dominant; <0.3 = block-dominant, institutional/defensive.
3. Track strongSweepNet = sweep calls bought − sweep puts bought. The primary trend anchor — a sign flip means urgent money changed sides. Most actionable single metric.
4. Add repeatShare — rising = systematic accumulation (same strike/expiry repeating). High sweep + high repeat = aggressive institutional building.
5. If sold cells dominate → mandatory chart check. A reversal signal from flow is never actionable alone — you verify against price: is there actually a trend to reverse, and is momentum fading?

Worked example — $NVDA, Oct 5, 2026. Day's flagged premium: $16.7M, 16% bullish / 84% bearish (ratio 0.19), net −$11.3M. Here's the matrix:

• Cell dominance: call-selling swamped call-buying ~10x ($12.5M sold vs $1.2M bought) — premium-collection dominant on the bullish side, i.e., a "ceiling" statement at $238+.
• Concentration: the sold-call wall came from 53 sweep + 64 block trades (avg ~$88–129K each) — broad crowd participation, not one whale.
• Urgency/accumulation: sweepShare 0.63, repeatShare 0.63 — urgent and systematic.
• The flip: strongSweepNet turned negative (−$0.42M) for the first time in 11 sessions — sweep put-buying ($1.4M) outpaced sweep call-buying ($1.0M):

Step 5 in action — the mandatory cross-check (daily + weekly). Flow hints at a ceiling; price says not confirmed yet. Latest daily data as of Monday, 05 October 2026: $NVDA closed at $238.90 (+2.1%), above a fully stacked bullish EMA ribbon (EMA8 $230.93 → EMA89 $214.85), above SMA50 ($218.92), and riding the upper Bollinger band ($238.30) — an expansion regime where bands are targets, not reversal signals. RSI 66.9 with an expanding MACD histogram (+1.21): in a trend, RSI near 70 is strength, not exhaustion. The weekly agrees — the week just closed at $233.95, far above weekly SMA50 ($198.13), with weekly MACD momentum still expanding.

Unified read: money flow shows a bearish reversal hint (call-selling dominance + the first urgent put-buy flip); technicals do not confirm a top — trend and momentum are intact. That's the correct output of the matrix: an early-warning flag on the dashboard, not a verdict. Flow tells you where conviction is building; the chart decides whether the signal is live.

Context note — market-wide, same 11 days (Sep 21–Oct 5): the all-stocks matrix ran 46.3% bullish vs 53.7% bearish (net −$601M), yet strongSweepNet stayed positive every single day while compressing from ~$65M to ~$30M — total flow leaned bearish, urgent directional money stayed net call-buying but with a shrinking edge. Same tool, two scales; reading both is the point.

Caveats: the matrix covers conviction-flagged unusual activity only; repeatShare on the latest day can be incomplete while signal analysis runs; and flow is positioning evidence, never a forecast.