Record-Low Skew: Crash Insurance for Pennies Signals Top | Thierry Borgeat

The S&P put/call skew just collapsed to 0.71. Not a low. The lowest reading on record. The 10-year average is 12. The 2020 panic peaked at 34. We're at 0.71. What this measures: how much investors pay to protect against a crash versus betting on a rally. At 0.71, crash protection is essentially free. Nobody wants it.

The chart displays "S&P 500 Average Single Stock 1m Normalized Skew," a custom metric averaging 1-month normalized put-call skew across S&P 500 stocks, with the latest value at 0.71 (record low). History shows crashes follow low-fear periods as hedging fades. 

Think about what that means. After two years of gains, at record concentration, with households at record equity exposure, the options market has priced hedging like insurance on a house that cannot burn. History's lesson is consistent: markets don't crash when everyone fears a crash. Fear is the hedge. This chart says the hedge is gone. Nobody buys insurance at the top. That's what makes it the top?

 

Thierry Borgeat, July 6, 2026.

 

The skew signal is not always precisely timed,
but reliably foreshadows major trend changes.

SPX vs CBOE SKEW Index (10 DMA) │ All-Time-High

On March 20 the 10 Day Moving Average of the CBOE SKEW Index reached a historical high at 145.49. The CBOE SKEW Index ("SKEW") is an index derived from the price of S&P 500 tail risk. Similar to CBOE VIX, the price of S&P 500 tail risk is calculated from the prices of S&P 500 out-of-the-money options. SKEW typically ranges from 100 to 150. A SKEW value of 100 means that the perceived distribution of S&P 500 log-returns is normal, and the probability of outlier returns is therefore negligible. As SKEW rises above 100, the left tail of the S&P 500 distribution acquires more weight, and the probabilities of outlier returns become more significant. One can estimate these probabilities from the value of SKEW. Since an increase in perceived tail risk increases the relative demand for low strike puts, increases in SKEW also correspond to an overall steepening of the curve of implied volatilities, familiar to option traders as the "skew".

CBOE SKEW Index Hits All-Time High

The CBOE SKEW Index has hit an all-time high, which means the cost of protecting against a major outside event is now at a record.
The CBOE SKEW Index is an index derived from the price of S&P 500 tail risk. Similar to VIX®, the price of S&P 500 tail risk is
calculated from the prices of S&P 500 out-of-the-money options. SKEW typically ranges from 100 to 150. A SKEW value of 100 means
that the perceived distribution of S&P 500 log-returns is normal, and the probability of outlier returns is therefore negligible.
As SKEW rises above 100, the left tail of the S&P 500 distribution acquires more weight, and the probabilities of outlier returns
become more significant. 

Credits: Simon Maierhofer