Options flow data providers
Options flow data providers differ on four things that matter and a dozen that do not. The four: whether they are exchange-licensed or aggregating a licensed feed, how much latency sits between the print and your screen, whether prints come with chain context or arrive bare, and whether you are buying a dashboard or a data feed. Realtime Options is an aggregator selling a dashboard at $25 per month; the sections below say plainly when that is the wrong choice.
- This platform is
- A dashboard, not a data feed
- Licence type
- Aggregator on licensed third-party data
- Latency
- Near real-time, seconds not microseconds
- Price band
- $25/month against a $50-$200 market norm
The four questions that separate providers
Feature lists across this category look nearly identical, which is why they are useless for choosing. These four questions produce different answers from every vendor.
- Licence: exchange-entitled direct feed, or an aggregator on top of a licensed feed? Direct is faster and far more expensive. Aggregators are what most retail-priced tools are.
- Latency: microseconds, seconds, or 15 minutes? Ask for the number, not the adjective. 'Real-time' is used for all three.
- Context: does a print arrive with open interest, the rest of the strike and gamma at that strike, or on its own? Bare prints are the most common way a tool looks impressive and helps nobody.
- Shape: dashboard or feed? A dashboard ends in a decision; a feed ends in code you still have to write.
Where Realtime Options sits
Aggregator, seconds of latency, full chain context, dashboard, $25 per month with a 7-day trial on 15-minute delayed data and no card required. One plan, no tiers, no seat minimums, no add-on data packages — the comparable tools in this category commonly run $50 to $200 per month.
| Good fit if you | Buy elsewhere if you |
|---|---|
| Research US stock and ETF options flow visually | Need microsecond latency for execution |
| Want prints checked against strike, OI and GEX | Want raw prints in code via an API |
| Are pricing-sensitive at the retail end | Need non-US markets or Indian F&O |
| Prefer one flat plan over tiered data add-ons | Want trade signals or copy trading |
Questions worth asking any provider
Applies to this one as much as the others. A vendor that will not answer these in writing is telling you something.
- Is your data exchange-licensed directly, or aggregated from a licensed vendor?
- What is the measured delay between the exchange print and my screen?
- Does open interest update intraday, or once after the close? (It is once, everywhere. Anyone claiming otherwise is wrong.)
- Is there a free trial that includes the paid dashboards, or only a stripped tier?
- What is the total monthly cost with every data add-on included?
Questions people ask about this
Which provider is best for options flow?
There is no single best; the category splits by use case. Execution-latency work needs an exchange-entitled feed, programmatic work needs an API vendor, and visual research needs a dashboard. Realtime Options only competes in the third group, at the low end of its price band.
Is a low cost platform with options flow data any good?
Price mostly tracks licence class rather than quality of analysis. A $25 aggregator and a $200 aggregator often sit on comparable underlying data; what differs is the analytics layer and how much of the chain context is shown. Compare the dashboards, not the price tags.
Do you offer trade signals or insights to act on?
No. Realtime Options publishes analytics, not signals. There are no buy or sell calls and no alerts telling you what to trade, and it is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer.
Realtime Options is a data analytics and visualisation platform. It does not provide financial advice or trading recommendations, and it is not a registered investment advisor or broker-dealer. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors.