Track large trades moment by moment: where institutional money is placing its bets now. Finviro's term: “Options Order Flow”.
What is read here
Options Order Flow (Options Order Flow) is reading contract trades moment by moment with one question: who initiated? A trade filled at the ask points to an urgent buyer, and one at the bid to an urgent seller. Summed over thousands of trades, that draws the direction of money before its effect shows up fully in price.
Why it sometimes leads the chart
A lot of big positioning goes through options rather than stock: more leverage and more discretion. An institutional buyer expecting a move may leave a footprint in calls days before the news. Flow is the tool for catching those footprints while they are fresh.
Elements of a sound reading
The trade's size and premium (millions say more than thousands), where it filled against the spread, whether it opens or closes a position (compare tomorrow's open interest), and whether it is a leg of a multi-leg structure or an outright bet. One trade says nothing. The accumulated pattern does.
Hypothetical example
A quiet stock sees a string of call purchases over two hours, two months out and ten percent above the price, all at the ask and with premiums above a million dollars. That is an initiating pattern of positioning, unlike a hedge, and worth watching whatever the explanation.
Common mistake
Copying every huge trade: half of the big ones are hedges or one leg of a structure whose meaning flips with the other leg. Flow narrows down candidates. It does not issue verdicts.
What you can and can't read from it
You can read where interest is concentrating and when it suddenly intensifies. You cannot read intent: the same order may be an opening, a closing or a hedge. That is why it is always paired with the next day's open interest, which settles whether positions were opened or closed.
Where to see it on the platform
The flow tools classify today's trades by execution side and size, and the Trade Scanner picks up large and unusual trades as they print.
The flow scanner shows the largest executions with expiration, direction and the symbol's context.
