Why Filter Settings Make or Break Your Tape
OptionFlow generates thousands of trades every session. Without filters, the tape is noise. With the right preset, it becomes a focused feed showing only the activity that matches your style and risk tolerance. The three presets below are starting points, not permanent configurations. Treat them as calibrated defaults you tune as you get comfortable with how the tape behaves in different market conditions.
Before you pick a preset, answer two questions: how many positions do you want to manage at once, and how much time do you have to monitor the screen? The answers point directly to the right configuration. If you want fewer, stronger signals and can hold overnight, use conservative. If you are staring at the screen all session and want to capture intraday momentum, use aggressive or momentum.
The Conservative Preset
Settings: Size over 1,000 contracts, price under $5, premium over $500K, expiration under 7 days.
This preset keeps only the largest, highest-premium prints near expiration. Most of what makes it through this filter represents an institution making a deliberate, near-term directional bet with significant dollar commitment. You will see fewer alerts per hour, which is the point. The goal is quality, not quantity.
Best for: Swing traders and anyone who wants to focus on a short list of meaningful setups rather than scanning continuously. If you can act on two or three strong signals per day and ignore everything else, conservative is your baseline.
For example, you open OptionFlow on a Tuesday morning with the conservative preset active. The tape is quiet for the first 20 minutes. Then AAPL appears: 1,400 contracts at $3.80, expiring in 5 days, $532K premium, bought at the ask. That single print passes all four filters and lands cleanly on your tape. Because you have not been distracted by 50 smaller prints, you can immediately focus on whether the setup is worth pursuing - checking the Contract Drilldown for NCP trajectory, then verifying the chart setup and any corresponding dark pool activity.
The Aggressive Preset
Settings: Size over 2,000 contracts, price under $1, premium over $100K, 0DTE only.
This targets same-day expiration plays where institutions are making a high-leverage intraday bet. The low per-contract price and high contract count creates concentrated premium exposure that expires by the close. These trades are urgent by nature - an institution willing to pay $100K or more for contracts expiring in hours expects a move today.
Best for: Experienced day traders who are comfortable with fast-moving setups, quick decisions, and the understanding that 0DTE positions can go to zero. This is not a preset for new traders or anyone who cannot watch the screen closely during market hours.
For example, at 10:15 AM you see SPY appear in the tape: 3,200 contracts, $0.48, 0DTE calls, $153K premium, swept across three exchanges in a six-second window. The sweep classification tells you someone was so eager to fill that they hit multiple venues simultaneously. Open the Contract Drilldown and check whether NCP is climbing above the baseline. If it is, and the Net Sentiment bar is firmly green, that urgency combined with the conviction read is the signal the aggressive preset is designed to surface.
The Momentum Preset
Settings: Size over 3,000 contracts, price under $0.45, premium over $250K, expiration under 14 days.
This preset isolates massive contract counts at low per-contract premiums. A 3,000-contract trade at $0.45 represents $135K in premium and enormous notional exposure if the underlying moves significantly. Institutions use these high-count, low-premium trades for outsized leverage on a move they expect to be sharp but short-term.
Best for: Catching explosive momentum setups where a relatively small move in the underlying can produce a large percentage gain on the position. These setups require that the move actually happens - if it does not develop within a few days, low-premium options decay quickly.
For example, you see META appear on the tape with 4,100 contracts at $0.38, 8 DTE calls, $155K premium, bought side. That contract count is what makes the momentum preset fire - someone has built enormous contract-count exposure that pays off meaningfully only if META moves. Cross-reference the Chart Drilldown and check whether this is an isolated print or part of a cluster from the past hour. Momentum presets reward patience: wait for the cluster, not the first hit.
Adjusting for Market Conditions
Presets are defaults, not fixed rules. Adjust based on what the session is doing.
High-volatility sessions (VIX spike, macro events, earnings-heavy days): Raise the size filter and lower the premium threshold. In high-volatility environments, premium is expensive, so institutions pay less per contract for equivalent notional exposure. Sticking to 0DTE in these sessions keeps you focused on the highest-velocity setups. Extending expirations during volatility spikes tends to produce murky signals because institutions are hedging in all directions.
Low-volatility sessions (quiet macro calendar, post-event drift): Lower size to the 300-500 contract range and use higher premium thresholds to ensure you are still filtering for significant dollar commitment even at modest contract counts. Extend expirations slightly to 7 to 14 days, since low-volatility setups often need more time to develop.
Time of day: In the first 30 minutes after the open, 0DTE or 1-2 DTE filters work best because institutions are making intraday positioning decisions. After 2:00 PM, tighten everything and avoid opening new 0DTE positions - theta decay in the final two hours is punishing even on winning setups. If a signal fires after 2:30 PM on a 0DTE contract, treat it as information for the next session, not a trade for today.
Common Mistakes
- Switching presets mid-session without a reason. If you start on conservative and switch to aggressive because the conservative tape is quiet, you are solving boredom, not finding better setups. Stay with a preset for the full session unless market conditions change materially.
- Treating preset alerts as buy or sell signals without checking the Contract Drilldown. The preset surfaces trades that pass size and premium filters. It does not tell you whether NCP is climbing or whether the print was bought versus sold. Always open the Drilldown before acting.
- Running the momentum preset in a high-volatility session. When implied volatility is elevated, 3,000-contract low-premium prints are common as hedging activity. The preset may fire frequently on what is actually hedge flow, not directional conviction. In volatile sessions, move to conservative or check the Drilldown more carefully for bought versus sold breakdown.
- Ignoring expiration when evaluating a print. A 1,200-contract, $500K-premium call that expires in 45 days has a completely different risk and time profile than one expiring in 4 days. Both pass the conservative filter. The near-term print represents a short-window directional bet; the far-term print may be part of a long-dated strategic position or a roll. Read the expiration column before you read anything else.
Related
Once your filters are set, explore OptionFlow Quick Start for a full walkthrough of reading the tape and using the Contract Drilldown. The AI Flow Assistant lets you query the filtered flow in plain English - useful when you want a summary of what the preset has surfaced over the last hour without scrolling every row. For a full overview of OptionFlow capabilities, visit the OptionFlow feature page.