Strikewise Open Interest

Strikewise open interest is the open interest figure for one specific strike price in an option chain, shown separately for the call and the put at that strike. It’s the most granular level at which OI is normally tracked — one row of the option chain — as opposed to looking at the total OI for the underlying or across a range of strikes.

Traders read strikewise OI as a rough map of where the market expects price to gravitate or struggle: a strike with unusually heavy call OI is often read as a level where call writers expect the underlying to stay below, acting as informal resistance, while heavy put OI at a strike below the current price is often read as informal support. When one or two strikes carry disproportionately large OI relative to their neighbours, that concentration is what traders call an OI wall, discussed in the same terms as ordinary support and resistance.

On Nifty and Bank Nifty weekly expiries, strikewise OI is watched intraday because it changes fast — writers add or unwind positions at specific strikes as price moves, and the strike carrying the highest OI can shift from one session to the next. Traders often look at strikewise OI together with the broader multistrike open interest view, using the wide view to spot where activity is concentrated and the strikewise numbers to confirm exactly how much OI sits at that level.

A strikewise OI number on its own doesn’t say whether traders are buying or writing that option — both actions add OI. To interpret it correctly, traders check the change in OI at the strike alongside the option’s premium move: OI rising with premium falling usually points to fresh option writing, while OI rising with premium rising usually points to fresh buying, and getting this direction wrong is a common beginner mistake when reading strike-level data.