An options trader's evening on RingMaster

You trade options, and you want to know where to start on this desk each evening. This page walks the whole evening, one screen at a time, in the order most readers use them.

At a glance

• When the evening starts. The desk publishes once, after the close. A Membership plan reads tonight's books. Free reads the trading day before.
• What never waits. The options screens are market data, so both plans see the same, newest capture, with nothing held back.
• The order below. Start broad on the whole list. Land on one name, then read its options in full. Close with one sentence and a family of approaches worth learning about.
• What you carry away. Readings, checked one by one, plus general education about which family of options approaches suits that kind of reading. Never a built position, and never a word about your own money.
• Key difference. A reading says what the desk found. What you do with it, and which broker's tools you use to build a position, is your own step.

Start in the evening

Open Trade Cards, the first screen. Every signalled name carries a probability, the same measurement over any stock beside it, and a structure with a limit already worked out. A row with no signal still carries an outlook. When that reads Low, or the name's own implied volatility argues for one, the row still carries a structure with no side.

Open Trade Cards. The sheet holds ten signals, and the rest of the names that cleared a band sit under a divider, one shade dimmer.

Screen for rich or cheap pricing

On the Option Prices layout, open the Options Screener with Open it. Sort by the IV vs own history column to find names priced high or low against their own past. The Pricing column says the word: rich, middle or cheap. The Cost to trade column says what crossing the spread costs at the money, as a share of the option's price. The word beside it is tight, fair or wide. Sort by Priced move for how far option prices carry a name, or by Put/Call for how the standing contracts tilt. A premium seller usually starts here, looking for rich pricing on a name that is not wide to trade.

Screen for the desk's side

On the Every Name layout, open Market Scan with Open it. Read the arrow, the signal and its chance, the three ranks, and how many trading days it has held. A directional trader usually starts here, looking for a high rank with the 45 and 20 day ranks agreeing.

Study the name you picked

On the Ticker Study layout, link the name, then read Read-out with Open it. It leads with the desk's own view, as short labelled lines with the figures first. Outlook: the side, the probability beside any stock and the confidence word. Ranks: the 10, 20 and 45 day percentiles. Chart, then Levels: the level against the view and the level with it, with their dates. Options: IV rank, the priced move and the spread. Trade: the family of structure that fits. Under that sit the fit's own entry and exit, what followed readings like this one on the paper record, and the restatements. Open Price Chart with Open it and turn on Swing levels or Pivots for the levels the price has already turned near. Then open Rank by Timeframe with Open it, and Timeframe Agreement with Open it. Together they show whether the signal holds across the 45 and 20 trading day ranks.

Read the whole options census

Back on Option Prices, open Options Snapshot with Open it. One set of tiles carries the whole picture. The share price, the implied volatility, the priced move up and down, the open interest split, and the gamma tiles all sit together. It is the fastest way to see whether a name deserves a deeper look.

Check pricing against its own history

On the Movement Priced In layout, open Volatility History with Open it. The History tab reads today's implied volatility against about sixteen years of that name's own weekly record. The Implied vs realized tab states, in one line, whether option prices carry more movement than the shares have shown lately, or less. A premium seller reads both before deciding whether pricing looks rich or cheap.

Read the priced move

Still on Movement Priced In, open Priced Range with Open it. The Priced move tab draws the move option prices carry to each date, up and down measured apart. The same levels sit as a table under the fan. The Odds tab draws the odds the quotes carry by strike. Check whether the expiry you care about, such as one spanning a report, is covered.

Check the term and the skew

Also on Movement Priced In, open Volatility Weather for whether near dates or far dates are priced richer. Open Volatility Smile for whether downside strikes or upside strikes cost more, stated as a points gap. Neither says why the market prices it that way.

Find the walls

On the Where Options Sit layout, open Gamma Map with Open it and choose the Hedging pressure tab. It states the net hedge change per one percent move, the gamma flip strike, the call wall and the put wall, all under one named assumption. It never says a price stops or turns there.

Read the strike detail and the expiries

Still on Where Options Sit, open Strike Table with Open it for open interest and delta at every strike, one expiry at a time. Open Expiry Ladder with Open it for how much open interest runs off within 7 or 30 days.

Check what traded and what changed overnight

On the Options Traded Today layout, open Changed Hands with Open it for what traded today against the open interest that stood before the trading day. Open Since Yesterday with Open it for the size and direction of every change since the last capture. Neither one names who traded or why.

Check the report date

On the Market Radar layout, open Earnings Radar with Open it for the next report date. It is marked confirmed or worked out from past quarters, and carries the straddle price where one is listed. An earnings trader reads this beside Volatility History to check whether pricing is already elevated ahead of the date.

The conclusion

A name on Trade Cards closes with a worked structure. It states the strike, the expiry, the limit to work, the Max loss and the option market's own odds of profit. It is priced from tonight's own capture.

Every name also closes with the desk's own view. Read-out states it as labelled lines: Outlook, Ranks, Chart, Levels, Options and Trade. Then the fit's own entry and exit, and what followed readings like this one on the paper record, with the coin flip beside the rate. The Trade line names the family of structure that fits the reading. A bull put spread when the desk is bullish with rich pricing, a bull call spread when pricing is cheap, and so on. See Options strategy families for how the family is picked. The Ask answers a strategy question the same way for the name on screen. Where Trade Cards carries no row for a name, this family is the reading to carry to a broker's own tools. The desk builds no position of its own past the priced structure a Trade Cards row states.

Comparing a second name

Open Options Snapshot and choose the Compare tab. Type a second name and its tiles sit beside the linked name's. The rows are share price, implied volatility, the priced move, put to call, open interest and the gamma tiles. Two more rows carry IV vs own history and realized volatility over 20 trading days. Nothing ranks the two; you read two columns. The Options Screener compares every covered name on one column at a time. A reader using their own AI through the connector can ask for up to six names at once with compare_names. That tool carries side, rank at 45, 20 and 10 trading days, the measured outlook and how long the signal has held. The options side comes from one get_options_positioning call per name.

The next evening

Open Since Yesterday again for what moved in the chain overnight. Open Positioning Replay for a short film of recent trading days, one frame per close. Check The Record for the paper track record, always labelled paper trading, with the coin flip stated beside it.

Related panes

• Trade Cards, the first screen: tonight's signals, each with an outlook, a structure and a limit.
• Reading The Options Suite, the shared primer for every options screen.
• Where to look for what, a finder for the words people search for.
• Getting started with options on this desk, a first walk for a reader new to options.
• How to study a name, the matching walk on the model side of the desk.
• What this desk can and cannot tell you, where the desk's side and levels live.