Options flow
Options flow is the stream of executed option trades on an underlying, read print by print: contract, time, size, execution price and the quotes at that moment. It describes activity, not intent, and it is distinct from open interest and from a futures footprint.
Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026
What a flow line contains
A single line of options flow identifies the contract (underlying, expiry, strike, call or put), then the execution: timestamp, number of contracts, price, venue and trade conditions where the feed provides them. From the price and size the premium is derived as execution price multiplied by contracts multiplied by the contract multiplier. Comparing the execution price with the synchronised bid and ask gives a side label: a print at or near the ask is usually tagged as bought, near the bid as sold, and prints in the middle stay ambiguous.
The classification is a heuristic. Quotes move, records can be missing and multi-leg orders print as several lines that only make sense together. Two providers can label the same print differently. The method behind a colour should be read before the colour is trusted.
Reading flow without over-reading it
- A bought call can be an opening bet, a closing of a short, or one leg of a spread. Call volume alone does not establish a bullish view.
- Premium measures the dollars that changed hands on that print; it is not profit, not delta exposure and not a commitment for the rest of the session.
- Vol/OI, the session's traded volume against the contract's standing open interest, indicates how fresh the activity is relative to the prior close; it cannot show whether positions stayed open.
- The underlying's price and liquidity at the time of the print are part of the context; a large print into a thin book and the same print into a busy one are different observations.
Flow versus footprint versus GEX
| View | What it records | Time basis | What it cannot show |
|---|---|---|---|
| Options flow | Executions in option contracts | Per print, with feed delay | Opening or closing, the rest of the portfolio |
| Futures footprint | Executions in the futures contract, at bid and at ask, per price | Per bar | Who hedged what |
| GEX | Modeled dealer gamma from open interest | Per chain snapshot | Actual positions held |
In Senzoukria
Option Flow is a module of the desktop application, reachable from the main menu. Its table shows Time, Symbol, Strike, DTE, Moneyness, Size, Vol/OI, Price, Premium, IV and Side for each print, with header cards that sum the session into Total premium, Put / Call premium, Buy / Sell flow and Biggest trade. In that table Vol/OI is the print's own size against the contract's standing open interest, so a value at or above 1 marks a single execution as large as everything outstanding; when the source returns no open interest the cell says so instead of showing a ratio. Filters set a minimum premium, a minimum size, a contract type and a side, and are kept between sessions. Prints arrive from the options source the user configured; the header states the delay of that source (15 minutes on the Alpaca free tier, 5 to 15 minutes behind on Databento historical OPRA).
Nothing in the feed trades. It is an analysis view, and options data is billed by the provider rather than included with the software.
Common mistakes
- Summing all call premium and all put premium and calling the difference a market position.
- Multiplying a latest quote by cumulative volume and presenting the result as the premium actually paid.
- Treating a scanner refreshed from chain snapshots as a complete real-time tape.
- Assuming a delayed feed is live because the table keeps updating.
Related
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- Is options flow the same as unusual options activity?
- No. Options flow is the whole tape of executions. Unusual options activity is a filter applied to that tape, selecting prints whose size, premium or volume relative to open interest exceeds a threshold. The filter changes what is displayed, not what happened.
- Can options flow tell me which direction the market will move?
- It cannot. Flow shows what traded, when and roughly on which side of the quote. Intent, hedges and the other legs of a position remain unknown. Any relation between a flow event and a later move in the underlying has to be defined as a rule and measured over many sessions, with costs included, before it can be used.
- Why do two flow services show different labels for the same trade?
- Because each compares the execution against its own quote snapshot, applies its own rule for prints between bid and ask, and groups multi-leg orders differently. The trade is the same; the classification is a model. Read the provider's method before relying on the label.