Options Snapshot

It is one of the screens that covers a single company. Reading The Options Suite is the introduction. Every figure here comes from option quotes at the previous trading day's close. These are not live prices. After each close we take one copy of the option quotes. That copy is what we call the capture, and every tile on this screen is read off it. This is market data we observed, not output from our own model. Because of that, this screen is never delayed: every plan sees the newest capture, free or paid.

At a glance

An option is a contract to buy or sell shares at a fixed price by a set date. This screen puts one company's whole options picture on a set of number tiles. It is the short version of everything else in the options suite.

• What a tile is. One number, with one short line saying what the number is.
• How to read a tile. Each tile prints its number in the units the market uses.
  • Percentages. Implied volatility shows as a percentage a year, such as 31.4%. The two move tiles show as a percentage of the share price, each with a sign in front, such as -4.2% and +4.6%.
  • Plain numbers. Put to call shows as a number such as 1.40. Above 1 means more open puts than calls. Below 1 means more open calls.
  • Counts. Open interest counts contracts. The delta-weighted tile counts shares. Both print in whole units, shortened once they run past a thousand.
• The price tiles. The share price at the capture, and the rate of movement built into option prices at that same capture. The screen calls that second one implied volatility.
• The move tiles. How big a down move option prices treat as ordinary, and how big an up move. The two are shown apart, never blended into one figure.
• The gamma tiles. Three figures for the gamma the open contracts carry. Gamma is how sharply an option's own price reacts as the share price moves. Net is calls minus puts, a counting rule. Total adds the two sides. Call gamma share is the part of the total sitting in calls. This screen is the one place these three figures live for a single name. The Options Screener carries them for every name.
• The Pricing and Cost to trade tiles. Added 2026-09-16. Pricing is the desk's word for where tonight's options sit against this name's own weekly history. It reads rich, middle or cheap, with the percentile it came from. Cost to trade is what crossing the market costs at the money, as a share of the option's own price. It carries its own word too: tight, fair or wide. Both words are the builder's, decided once on the server. So this screen, the Options Screener and the Read-out never disagree.
• The positioning tiles. Three counts of contracts that are already open.
  • How many. The number of contracts still open across every date.
  • The split. How those contracts divide between puts and calls.
  • Where they sit. The middle of the strikes they sit around, and the two strikes that react most sharply to the share price moving. A strike is the fixed price a contract is written at.
• These numbers only look backwards. Every tile restates something already in the market. Contracts already open, prices already quoted. A census counts what exists at the capture, not what comes next. That is what we mean by a census: a head count of every contract open at the capture.
• What we do not hold. The published books never include options on a single company.
• The Compare tab. A second tab sets this whole tile grid beside a second name you type in. Neither name is ranked against the other. Key difference: the down move tile is priced off strikes below the share price. The up move tile is priced off strikes above it. Never add the two together.

The two views

A tab bar at the top chooses which view this screen shows.

One name

The tab this pane opens on. The tile grid described below, for the linked name alone.

A Play forward strip sits under the tabs on this view. It moves every options pane to a later date.

• The tiles. They stay today's figures at every date.
• The line under the strip. The move option prices carry to the date, down and up in dollars, and the share of today's open interest still open.
• How a date between two expiries is read. The same way as on Priced Range: total variance, drawn as a straight line in days between the two expiries around the date.
• Using it. Set the date to a planned exit to read the range the market prices by then, and how much of today's positioning is still open.

Compare

Sets that same tile grid beside a second name you type into a small box.

• Typing a name. The box takes a ticker, the same shape typed everywhere else on the desk. A dash appears if we hold no observations for it.
• What lines up. Both names print in the same order. Share price, implied volatility, the two priced moves, put to call, open interest, the delta weighted count, and the three gamma figures.
• Two extra rows. IV vs own history and realized volatility over 20 trading days, when the capture carries them for that name.
• The verdict, underneath. Added 2026-09-16. Up to three sentences below the two columns. First, which name the desk ranks above the other tonight, from its own published view of each. Then which is priced richer against its own history, and which is cheaper to trade. Each sentence prints only when both names carry the figure it compares. Every sentence is the same for every reader.
• No second name yet. The screen invites you to type one in.

What each tile means

Each row below is one tile on the screen.

Both move figures come from the option prices themselves. They are what statisticians call one standard deviation: a move of ordinary size, the kind that happens often, not a big one. Each tile is labelled "Priced" and its note reads "as priced", because the figures restate the market's own quotes. They are never our forecast.

The hover on the two move tiles

Hovering a move tile adds one line of odds for that price level.

• What it says. It counts the odds as odds, in the form "about 1 in N". About 1 in 6 means roughly one time in six the share finishes past that level on that date.
• Whose figure it is. It is read off the market's own quotes on that level's own side. It is not a view of ours.
• The odds and the size of the move do not line up. They are read off different strikes. Priced Range explains that.
• When it is blank. If the capture holds no quote near that level, no hover line appears at all. Priced Range is the fuller version of the same idea. It draws the same two move sizes for every expiry date, one bracket at a time.

Reading it well

1. Read the two move tiles as a pair, never summed. The down move is priced off strikes below the share price. The up move is priced off strikes above it.
2. OI center strike is just an average. It is the middle of where open contracts sat at the capture, worked out with a sum. It is not a price the share is heading to.
3. Put to call describes holdings. It says how the open contracts split. It says nothing about where the share goes.
4. Go to the strike level screens for detail. Strike Table is the full count, strike by strike. Gamma Map shows how sharply option positions react as the share price moves, strike by strike. Three common misreadings:
5. Reading OI center strike as a price the share heads to. It is an average of where the open contracts sit, worked out with a sum.
6. Reading put to call as a view on the share. It describes positions that already exist.
7. Adding the two move tiles into one range. They are priced separately, and this screen never combines them. Everything on this screen was copied from the previous trading day's option chain. The chain is the full list of contracts listed on this company. Nothing here is a forecast.

Frequently asked questions

Is the priced up move or priced down move your forecast for the share? No. Both are the size of an ordinary move, taken from option prices. They restate quotes, not our opinion. What does put to call mean, and what does a number above 1 tell me? It is open puts divided by open calls. Above 1 means more puts are open than calls. Below 1 means more calls. It describes holdings, not an action. What is the OI center strike? An average of the strikes where open contracts sit, weighted by how many sit at each one. It is worked out with a sum. It is not a price the share is heading to. Where did the old Open Positioning screen go? It became this one on 2026-08-10, in place and on the same pane type. Saved layouts kept their slot and now show the tiles. The whole count sits on one screen instead of two. What does hovering a move tile show? The odds for that price level, read off the market's own quotes. If the capture holds no quote for that level, nothing appears. Can I check another company at the same time? Yes. Open the Compare tab and type a second name into the box. Its tiles print in a second column, beside the linked name's.

Related panes

• Reading The Options Suite. The shared introduction: the words, what the nightly capture covers, and the compliance rules every options screen follows.
• Priced Range. The same two move sizes, drawn for every expiry date.
• Strike Table. The full count of open contracts, strike by strike and date by date.
• Gamma Map. How sharply the option positions behind these numbers react as the share price moves, strike by strike.