What’s the difference between sweeps and blocks? ‍ SweepsĪn options sweep is a market order split across all exchanges to take advantage of the best prices for a given option contract on each individual exchange.īullish options sweep activity is when a buy order fills near the ask price on each exchange, indicating the buyer was willing to pay more than the bid/mid price for a particular contract to fill their order as quickly and effectively as possible. The unusual options activity endpoint provides the following data for each unusual trade: Customers who want historical data can pull unusual activity toward the end of each day and cache it.

Since higher-volume option contracts or option chains are going to generate a large number of unusual activity trades a day, we clear the list at the end of every day. The endpoint will return all unusual activity for that security on that day. This dataset tracks the large option activity of sophisticated investors, typically referred to as “smart money.” To retrieve unusual options data, you simply have to provide the ticker symbol for the underlying security for which you want to listen for unusual activity (for example, Microsoft - MSFT). Currently, unusual options activity is available for clients who are subscribed to our real-time or 15-minute delayed option data. You can track unusual options activity via our Web API endpoint. ‍ How does Intrinio track unusual options activity? Intrinio would flag such significant options activity, and anyone subscribed to Intrinio's unusual options activity feed would be alerted and able to adjust their investment plans accordingly. This investor may then use this information to take a bearish position in Apple by purchasing numerous put contracts or writing numerous call contracts. Unusual options activity may indicate that investors have done considerable research, leading them to have asymmetric risk/reward viewpoints regarding a specific company. For example, an investor may decide after performing thorough research into Apple Inc that the company is going to be facing significant headwinds in the future, ultimately causing the underlying stock value to falter.

Because the options market focuses solely on the future performance of a particular company, and provides easy access to leverage for individuals and institutions, this information can be highly valuable and highly profitable in the right hands. To state the obvious, unusual options activity is anything that happens on the options market that seems out of the ordinary.

Whether you're the CEO of a portfolio management company or the manager at an AI-powered investment firm, unusual options data can be a helpful factor to improve your confidence regarding future investment decisions. Unusual options activity can be useful as a predictive tool to determine upcoming stock price moves for a particular underlying symbol. Still, we are excited to announce our unusual options activity dataset, which will serve as a good substitute for your investment needs. Here at Intrinio, we can't offer you Biff's almanac (and it likely wouldn't do you any good, considering it only lists scores through the year 2000).

If you've ever seen Back to the Future II, you'll recall that Biff Tannen steals a sports almanac from the future and uses it to successfully predict the outcome of several sporting events on his route to becoming rich.

Msft unusual options activity