Options strategy scanner

What an options strategy scanner actually does

A strategy scanner takes a target outcome and works backwards through the option chain to find leg combinations that produce it. The input is a payoff shape and a set of constraints; the output is a ranked list of concrete strike and expiry combinations.

That is a chain-analysis problem, not a tape problem. It needs a full quoted chain, a pricing model and a probability assumption, and its answers are model outputs based on current quotes rather than observations of what anyone actually traded.

• Screens the chain for structures matching a target credit, debit, width or breakeven.
• Applies a probability model, usually derived from implied volatility, to estimate the chance of finishing beyond a strike.
• Filters by days to expiry, delta, spread width, liquidity and the presence of an earnings date inside the expiry.
• Draws a payoff diagram so the maximum loss, maximum gain and breakevens are visible before entry.
• Sometimes models the position forward under changes in price, time and implied volatility.

Why Realtime Options is not one

The data model here is executed transactions and strike-level exposure, not a quoted payoff surface. The platform records where premium, contract volume and published open interest concentrate and estimates exposure from that; it never assembles a hypothetical multi-leg position or prices one.

Building a strategy scanner is a different product rather than a missing feature. It requires a full real-time quoted chain across every strike and expiry, a pricing engine and a probability model, and each of those brings its own data licence, its own assumptions and its own way of being wrong. Adding a thin version of it would produce a worse tool than the ones that already exist and would blur what this platform is for.

Tools that do scan or build strategy structures

These are the product categories that genuinely answer strategy-construction questions. Feature sets and pricing change, so verify the current terms on each vendor's own site before subscribing; this list is a map of categories, not an endorsement or a ranking.

Use a strategy builder instead if

The honest test is whether your question is about a hypothetical position or about observed activity. If it is the former, nothing on this platform will answer it and a builder will answer it immediately.

• You want to see the payoff diagram, breakevens and maximum loss of a structure before placing it.
• You want the chain searched for iron condors, verticals or calendars matching a target credit or delta.
• You want a probability-of-profit estimate attached to a candidate structure.
• You want to model a position forward under changes in price, time or implied volatility.
• You want to backtest how a repeated structure behaved historically.
• You want covered-call or cash-secured-put candidates ranked by yield, which is a chain-screening job.

What Realtime Options contributes before you choose a structure

Positioning context is the part a builder does not have. A payoff diagram is identical whether or not anyone else is trading that strike, whereas flow and open interest describe where the market has actually committed money.

Each of these is context, not confirmation. Flow is observed activity, side and intent are estimates, open interest updates once daily after the close from OCC rather than intraday, and gamma exposure is a model output rather than a level that must hold.

• Where session premium concentrated by strike and expiry, so a chosen strike is not chosen in isolation.
• Whether activity clustered at one strike or spread across the chain, which matters for the liquidity of a multi-leg exit.
• Published open interest at candidate strikes, as a check on whether a series can be traded out of.
• Modelled gamma exposure around spot, as an estimate of where dealer hedging pressure may sit.
• Price and news context for the underlying, so an expiry is not chosen through an unnoticed catalyst.
• Historical session review, so the same strike can be looked at across earlier days without implying repeatability.

The honest order of operations

Splitting the work across the right tools is faster than looking for one product that claims to do everything. Realtime Options sits at the start of this sequence and stops well before execution.

• Form a view, and decide whether you have a view on direction, size of move, or neither.
• Check positioning: where premium, volume and open interest sit across strikes and expiries, and whether a catalyst falls inside the expiry.
• Choose a structure in a strategy builder, where the payoff, breakevens and maximum loss are explicit.
• Check the liquidity of every leg you intend to trade, not only the one you are most interested in.
• Place and manage the position at your broker. Realtime Options has no order entry and no broker connectivity.

Strategy scanner, strategy builder, strategy finder and flow scanner

These four terms are used interchangeably across the category and mean different things. Separating them is the fastest way to work out which product you are actually looking for.

Questions people ask about this