Case studies

Options questions, followed to the end

Each case is one research path on real, dated data: the questions asked, what Meerkat ran, the numbers it found, and what they cannot tell you. Every step plays on the live dashboard beside it, and the last one hands you the questions to ask next.

• Entry study · calls in a crash · NVDA

  Calls bought into a crash: which expiry, which strike, and how bad was buying early?

  Sixteen calls on four days around April 2025's low, the early ones followed through the drop, what the IV cost, and Tesla and AMD.

  Data: March to October 2025

  −85% the best call, bought ten sessions early, at its worst Median return held 63 sessions: 14, 30, 90, 180 days
• Backtest · the wheel · KO

  A year of the wheel: smaller drawdowns, smaller gains. What was it selling?

  Five large caps against buy and hold, one stock's trades, three deltas, today's put, and what a backtest cannot promise.

  Data: the year to October 23, 2026

  +13.6% the wheel on KO, against +32.6% held Wheel against buy and hold: META, AAPL, JPM, KO, NVDA
• Earnings · MSFT

  A report is days away. How big a move is priced, and what happens to the IV after?

  The week's reports against their past moves, the report in the term structure, eight past moves, and two trades through the crush.

  Data: the close of October 23, 2026

  ±5.3% priced, against 8.1% over the last four At-the-money IV: Oct 26, Oct 30, Nov 6, Nov 13
• Dealer gamma · SPY

  SPY sits under its gamma flip. What does that tell you, and what doesn't it?

  The flip and the walls, four symbols compared, the expiries that hold the gamma, realized against implied, and the model's assumptions.

  Data: the close of October 23, 2026

  −$14.4B of stock per 1% move, by one convention Gamma by expiry: 69% of it ends this week
• Large prints · NFLX

  Billions of dollars of puts in one afternoon. Is someone betting on a fall?

  The day's largest prints, one stock's blocks against intrinsic value, and what the next morning's open interest showed.

  Data: October 22 and 23, 2026

  $3.5B deep in-the-money puts, in 26 stocks NFLX's blocks; the open interest they added: none
• IV percentile · SYK

  A high IV percentile caught your eye. What should you check next?

  The list, the earnings date and realized volatility, the term structure, two spreads compared, and what the numbers cannot tell you.

  Data: the close of October 23, 2026

  98.8 IV percentile, near the top of its year At-the-money IV by expiry, November to June