Platform Guide · Lesson 5 of 13
Read the Flow Workspace Without Assuming Intent
Flow has three tabs: Summary for premium, volume and volatility, Orderflow for buyers versus sellers, and Unusual flow for the session’s most unusual trades.
In this lesson
- Know what each Flow tab shows
- Check coverage and the time window before reading a flow number
- Explain why a large trade doesn’t reveal intent
The Flow workspace keeps three views of options activity for the selected ticker in one place.
Summary and Orderflow
- Summary shows net premium, call and put premium, volume, open interest and implied volatility across expirations.
- Orderflow splits option buyers from sellers, contract by contract, by where each trade filled against the quote: near the ask counts as bought, near the bid as sold. Trades in the middle, multi-leg trades and trades without a usable quote stay unclassified and are shown separately.
- Under the candles, the Bought vs sold strip shows each candle’s option premium bought minus sold: a blue cell marked + when more was bought, an orange cell marked − when more was sold, and a faint grey cell when neither side is clear. In the Directional view the strip is Bullish vs bearish, marked ▲ and ▼. Hover or tap a cell for its figures.
- Check whether the feed reports live, partial, backfilling or unavailable coverage.
Unusual flow
- Each trade is scored against the ticker’s own recent trades: size, aggression, days to expiry, volume versus open interest, key levels and clustering.
- Switch between the last 30 minutes, the last hour and the session, and step back to past sessions.
- Filled diamonds were bought and hollow ones sold (inferred from where each trade filled against the quote); half-filled ones are mixed or unclassified. The lean says which way the trade lines up.
Watch out
A large call trade can be one leg of a spread, a hedge or a position being closed. Activity at the ask doesn’t reveal the trader’s full intent, and repeated prints can come from one order being worked. Premium is money paid, not conviction.
Implied volatility reflects the expectations priced into options; realized volatility describes past movement. They answer different questions, especially around earnings and other events.
Note Which plans include it
The Flow workspace (Summary, Orderflow and Unusual flow) is included in Advance. On other plans each tab shows what it adds.
Check your understanding
2 questions. Answer each one, then open “Show answer” to compare.
Show answer
Answers: A. One leg of a spread · B. A hedge against another position · C. A position being closed
The print alone can’t tell these apart. Treat it as a reason to look closer, not as a forecast.
Show answer
Answer: B. The display may leave out activity, so hold the conclusion more loosely
Partial coverage means some trades may be missing. Weaken the conclusion rather than filling the gap with a guess.
Key takeaways
- Summary, Orderflow and Unusual flow each answer a different question.
- Check coverage and the time window first.
- A trade shows activity, not intent.
- For more on reading flow, see the Advanced track’s Reading Options Flow lesson.
Try it in StratosHedge
Open Flow for SPY. On Unusual flow, read the top trade’s score and whether it was bought or sold, then check whether price did anything at that moment.
Open Flow Needs: Advance plan
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Educational content, not investment advice. Lessons describe how markets and models tend to behave. They don’t tell anyone what to buy, sell or hold. Interactive examples use illustrative sample data, and simulator results are simulated — not actual trading. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors.
Risk disclosureCharacteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (OCC) (opens in a new tab)