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🔄 Option Flow

Option Flow shows you large, unusual transactions in the options market. These flows help you see where aggressive buyers and sellers are positioning, often before the move happens.
Gextron’s Unusual Options feed auto-updates in real time and is continuously scanning for new prints. There’s no need to refresh; new orders stream in as they cross the tape.

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What you’ll see in Gextron

Unusual option flow

SPY unusual option flow

When you open the Unusual Options feed in Gextron, each row shows:
  • ⏱ Time of execution
  • 📄 Contract details (ticker, strike, expiration)
  • 📅 Days to expiration (DTE)
  • 💰 Premium of the transaction
  • 📈 Spot price of the underlying
  • ⚖️ Moneyness (ITM, ATM, OTM)
  • 🧾 Order type (Sweep or Block — or blank for large single prints)

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Sweep vs Block

A sweep order is broken into smaller pieces and routed across multiple exchanges to get filled quickly.
• Indicates urgency — trader wants in fast.
• Seen as more aggressive than a block.
• Often predictive if repeated near key levels.
A block order is a single large trade, usually negotiated off-exchange between institutions.
• Less urgency than a sweep.
• Still important — shows size positioning, but may be part of a spread.
• If order type cell is empty in Gextron → it’s just a large block.

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Color Coding in Gextron

Gextron color codes every transaction to make it easy to see sentiment and aggressiveness.
  • White text → Neutral sentiment
    • Could be noise or part of a spread.
    • Still useful in sequence context.
  • Red text → Bearish sentiment
    • Put bought at the ask → bearish bet.
    • Call sold at the bid → bearish exit.
  • Green text → Bullish sentiment
    • Call bought at the ask → bullish bet.
    • Put sold at the bid → bullish exit.

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Understanding Moneyness

ITM (In the Money) → Contracts already have intrinsic value. Safer, more expensive.
ATM (At the Money) → Strike price ≈ underlying spot price. Most liquid, balanced risk/reward.
OTM (Out of the Money) → Purely speculative. Cheap, but lower probability unless flow is very aggressive. Moneyness helps you filter serious institutional bets (ITM/ATM sweeps at size) vs lottery tickets (OTM noise).

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Filtering and Lookback

Unusual option flow filtering

Filtering unusual option premium greater than $10,000

Gextron gives you flexibility to filter only the flows that matter to you.
1

Lookback window

You can go back up to the last 5 previous trading days of Unusual Option Orders.
2

Filter by premium

Only want to see million-dollar orders?
Use the premium filter operators:
  • > greater than
  • >= greater than or equal to
  • = equal to
  • < less than
  • <= less than or equal to
Example: >= 1000000 → only shows orders $1M or bigger.
Premium filtering lets you quickly isolate institutional-size trades and ignore small retail noise.

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Why Color + Context Matters

  • Green text on calls at the ask → institutions betting bullish.
  • Red text on puts at the ask → institutions betting bearish.
  • White text neutral → may be spreads → don’t overreact.
  • Background colors show when traders are paying up or dumping aggressively beyond normal bid/ask.
Never trade color alone. Always confirm with P-Trans / N-Trans levels, MaxReward/MaxPaint, AOIs, and the Tape.

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Example Workflow

1

Watch first 15 minutes

Note if sweeps cluster at levels (above P-Trans or below N-Trans).
2

Filter by DTE

Focus on contracts with 2–3 weeks to expiration (not zero-day noise).
3

Use Premium Filters

Example: only show orders >= $1,000,000 to focus on real institutional bets.
4

Color + Order Type

Combine text + background + sweep/block to gauge conviction.
5

Confirm with Tape

If Tape shows large prints in the same direction, confidence increases.

Tape Reading

Learn to confirm flow signals with live prints.

Risk & Reward

Structure trades around flow with defined exits.