Unusual Option Activity Scanner for ThinkorSwim

Why is delta only .40 and if we raise it higher what are the ramifications of that in your opinion. What do you mean "I try and stay close to the money?"
Recommend you put it on your scanner. Nothing beats personal experience ;) The only way you will know what works best for you is to play with the settings and see how the indicator line up w/ your strategy and with your other indicators. To determine if this scan brings value, analyze it over different timeframes, across history and with multiple instruments.
 
Can a scanner like flowalgo be developed with Thinkorswim?
The ToS Options Hacker Module doesn't allow the using of custom scripts to scan against options related data. We aren't allowed to use custom Thinkscript code in the Options Scanner.
 
@timyoung You might try https://usethinkscript.com/threads/unusual-option-activity-scanner-for-thinkorswim.4056/.
Jon Najarian probably finds those (if he isn't the cause behind them) by using a paid live-data unusual activity scanner.

Personally, I think CNBC and 99% of stock market news in general is for entertainment purposes only. I've seen and read about too much pumping the markets to trust anyone giving "tips". I've even seen former floor traders talking about corruption involving past CNBC hosts in particular - there's a reason why CNBC runs disclaimers. If trading stock market news worked, everyone would be a millionaire.

I'm curious, does Jon Najarian always happen to find some kind of unusual activity during his TV show?
 
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If you watch CNBC, you may be familiar with the Najarian brothers whose trading strategy is based upon large / unusual options activity. Is it possible to scan TOS for that type of data in real-time, as well as for historic data?
Thanks ( my first post :)
 
Lots of buzz around Unusual Option Activity (UOA) so thought I'll share out this scanner that I fine tuned for my personal use.

The scanner looks for the following:
  1. Option Volume of 10k or more
  2. OI of 5k or less - Usually indicates fresh volume coming in or the part where Unusual comes from
  3. Delta 0 -> 40 - You can fine tune this as you see fit. I try to stay close to the money
  4. DTE 14 -> 100 - Best for getting long term ones that come here
This is just a starter to filter through and analyze how to play the UOA. Use this as a starter to find the options and then drill down. Best used on "All stocks", the indices are too noisy with many players whose underlying intentions are usually unclear.

Example from today:

OyrKbCB.png


Option chain for ELY:

QNyOr8N.png


As you can see there's already good OI in 20 and 21 in the call side and 22 has 10K volume come in with 1K OI. And on the PUT side you don't see much interest. This is an entry I'll try and test it.

There could be other things that might come into play as well, but nevertheless it's a good way to track how Unusual Option Activity shows it's hands and potentially give an insight into following smart money.

Share link: http://tos.mx/REAjsH9
Thanks for sharing, i will try it
 
@theelderwand, is there a way to scan for open interest change day over day? I want to scan for oi[4]<oi[3]<oi[2]<oi[1],oi. I want to find stocks that smart money keeps betting on increasingly in the last 5 days.
look at O/I during the day and look at volume, the next day should reflect the volume of today, henc O/I 285 today volume 5000 today, then tomorrow should reflect 5285, maybe not perfect, some position may close by end of day etc.... you get what im saying
 
Unusual option scanner is not working in pre market , it is not giving any result. any changes need to be made to get the result set.
 

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Hey MerryDay , Quick question about the unusual option activity scan... I have the scan setup to alert me of any changes so it scans all the time M-F. Is it accurate that it would be scanning on Saturdays though since there is no market activity ? Thanks for your input !

The Scan Hacker does not take weekends off. It updates every 3-5 minutes 24/7.
When there is no activity, it provides no updates.
 
HI MerryDay: Thanks for all the responses and answers provided. I am using the Unusual Option volume, getting results but unable to get information on the nature of call or put(Buy or Sell).

this section does not depict if the user bought a call/put or sold a call/put.
Does font green depict buy and red depict sell?

Please advise.
 
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HI MerryDay: Thanks for all the responses and answers provided. I am using the Unusual Option volume, getting results but unable to get information on the nature of call or put(Buy or Sell).

this section does not depict if the user bought a call/put or sold a call/put.
Does font green depict buy and red depict sell?

Please advise.


As the op pointed out throughout this thread, it is not possible
There's almost nobody who can tell you if an UOA is a buy call or a sell call.
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/unusual-option-activity-scanner-for-thinkorswim.4056/#post-39532
 
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