Price movement occurs only when you see actual trading activity in a stock or contract. When your option contract doesn't move despite the underlying stock movement, the option contract is not being actively traded.
You can check trading activity by viewing the Last Traded Time (LTT), which displays when someone last bought or sold that particular contract. Open the market depth of your instrument to view the LTT.
There might be fluctuation in the bid and offer or chart of an instrument even though it’s not traded due to the following reasons:
- Bid and offer: The bid and the offer prices could be moving, but the Last Traded Price (LTP) would not have moved at all. This is because the top 5 bid and ask prices are displayed in the market depth window at all times by default, even if there is no trading activity in the instrument.
- Charts: Charts show dashes for option contracts until actual trades happen, after which candles form. Charts only capture the LTP, so you need to check the LTT to confirm trading activity. To learn more, visit zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/chart-types.