The Skew Signal I've Been Quietly Using for Years

Author

Don Kaufman
October 21, 2025

Don Kaufman here. 

Look, I need to tell you about something I've been sitting on.

For the better part of a decade at thinkorswim and TD Ameritrade, I had access to order flow data that most retail traders never see. Billions in institutional positioning. The real money moves before they hit the headlines.

One indicator stood out above everything else: volatility skew.

While retail traders chase momentum and headlines, institutions telegraph their moves through options pricing. 

When they're genuinely worried, they bid up put protection. When they're positioned for chaos, the skew numbers don't lie.

The CBOE SKEW Index just spiked to 151.31 - well into extreme fear territory above the normal 120 baseline. 

Put/call skew is showing a 6% premium on downside protection. Translation: Institutions are in full panic mode, but retail hasn't caught on yet.

SKEW just spiked to 151.31 ā€” institutions are in panic mode.

But your portfolio probably doesn't know how to profit from it.

Here's the problem: šŸ‘‡

Most traders fear volatility spikes instead of exploiting them.

ā€¢ Missing the 98% win rate setups that pros use
ā€¢ Getting whipsawed by tweet risk
ā€¢ Flying blind without forward-looking edge

Wednesday at 1pm ET: I'm revealing the exact skew-based strategy that turned recent chaos into:

$1,000... $1,186... $1,445 profits

While everyone else got crushed.