How to Use an Options Flow Scanner to Find Unusual Activity

Learn how to use an Options Flow Scanner to spot unusual activity, analyze sweeps and block trades, and interpret options volume, premium, and open interest.

Why Options Flow Matters During each trading session, the options market produces a huge volume of information. Since thousands of contracts are traded at various strike prices, expiry dates, and for different underlying stocks, it becomes hard for a trader to tell which transactions are worth looking at. In this situation, an Options Flow Scanner can be of assistance. Rather than having to monitor all the options chains manually, traders can use a scanner to select transactions according to criteria such as trade size, premium, volume, open interest, execution price, and order type. The aim is not to attempt to forecast the market on the basis of a single transaction, but to spot unusual activity that merits further investigation. Options Flow involves the sequence of options trades that occur in the market together with the related information concerning those trades. Traders usually examine this data in order to determine where substantial capital is being allocated and to assess whether the activity is focused on calls or puts, on certain strikes, or on particular expiration dates. The current market data also explains why this information can be hard to process by manual means: Cboe stated that the average daily volume of listed options was 72.8 million contracts in Q2 2026, a rise of more than 19% compared with the previous year. Odd activity may attract attention since a big transaction could be indicating a hedge, a directional position, a spread, an adjustment of an existing position, or it might just be a large order placed by an institution. This point is important. A trader who sees a million-dollar call transaction and at once thinks that someone must be very bullish might be reaching a conclusion that the data in fact does not support. Options Flow Analysis is most effective when flow is regarded as a clue, not a full trading thesis. What does an Options Flow Scanner entail? An Options Flow Scanner is a tool that arranges the transactions in the options market and identifies the trades that satisfy the criteria chosen. The filters available will vary according to the platform and may cover premium size, contract volume, volume that is atypical when compared to historical activity, whether the trade is a call or a put, the strike price, the expiration date, the time at which it was executed in relation to the bid and ask prices, and whether or not the order seems to be a sweep or a block. The scanner in effect functions as a filter between the trader and the huge amount of market transactions. Instead of having to look at the raw data, one can direct one's attention to the activity that meets the conditions that you find important. It is especially useful when you are looking into Unusual Options Activity . A scanner is able to draw a potentially important transaction to your notice in just a few seconds, but the alert is only the starting point for further analysis. For instance, SecurePutCalls has an options flow scanner which disp