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NOTE: This is the documentation for the websocket channel risk_reversal_skew. Websocket access for personal use is only available through the Advanced plan. You can find fully-functional examples that stream data from many channels here: Connect to the websocket URI: wss://api.unusualwhales.com/socket?token=<YOUR_API_TOKEN> then join the risk_reversal_skew channel. Each message carries the risk reversal skew — the put implied volatility minus the call implied volatility — at one delta bucket for one expiry of one ticker. A positive value means puts are more expensive than calls, the usual state for equity index options.

Delivery characteristics

Read these before writing a client, they are not obvious from the payload:
  • Updates arrive in a batch at most every ~30 seconds, not continuously.
  • The channel is only live between 04:00 and 16:00 ET. Outside that window nothing is published at all and the socket is silent. This is expected, not a fault.
  • One message per (ticker, expiry, delta) pair. Because this is a global channel covering the whole option universe and each ticker has many expiries, every batch is a large burst of messages. Your client must read from the socket promptly: a slow consumer is not disconnected, but frames it fails to keep up with are dropped.
  • Only two delta buckets are published: 25 and 10.
This is the live counterpart of the /stock/:ticker/historical-risk-reversal-skew endpoint, which returns the identical value under the same risk_reversal name. Note only that the REST endpoint renders it as a decimal string, while this channel sends a JSON number. Payload format:

Field reference

Last modified on September 28, 2026