Options Radars

Five Institutional Options Radars

Professional options traders don't rely on one signal — they monitor multiple dimensions of the options market simultaneously. Exelza's Options Radars automate this surveillance, scanning every ticker in real-time for the five highest-signal events that move markets.

1. IV Crush Alert

Implied volatility inflates before events (earnings, FDA, FOMC) and collapses after. If you hold options through an IV crush, even a correct directional bet can lose money. This radar detects when IV is abnormally elevated relative to historical and realized volatility — warning you before the crush happens.

• IV Percentile Rank — Current IV ranked against the past year. Above 80th percentile triggers an alert
• IV vs HV Divergence — When implied vol is 1.5× or more above realized vol, a mean-reversion crush is likely
• Term Structure Inversion — Near-term IV spiking above far-term IV signals event-driven premium that will collapse post-event
• Earnings/Event Flag — Upcoming catalysts that explain the elevated IV, with days-to-event countdown

Use case: Sell premium strategies (iron condors, strangles) before IV crush. Avoid buying options when IV is about to collapse. Time your entries after the crush for cheaper premiums.

2. Put/Call Ratio Spike

The put/call ratio measures market fear. When it spikes to extremes, the crowd is positioned heavily on one side — and the market often does the opposite. This radar detects extreme spikes in both volume-based and OI-based P/C ratios.

• Volume P/C Spike — Intraday put volume vs call volume exceeds 2σ of the 20-day average
• OI P/C Spike — Open interest ratio shifts beyond normal range, indicating a structural positioning change
• Dollar-Weighted P/C — Premium-weighted ratio reveals where the real money is flowing, not just contract counts
• Contrarian Signal — Extreme P/C readings historically precede reversals. The radar flags whether sentiment is at a contrarian extreme

Use case: Contrarian plays when extreme fear or greed is priced in. Confirmation of directional bias when P/C aligns with technical signals. Portfolio hedging when put demand surges across the market.

3. Unusual OI Buildup

When open interest grows significantly at a specific strike without a corresponding price move, someone is building a large position. This radar detects institutional accumulation before the move happens.

• OI Change Detection — Strikes where OI increased 3× or more vs the 5-day average, signaling fresh position building
• Strike Concentration — Multiple consecutive strikes accumulating OI at the same time, suggesting a spread or large-scale strategy
• Call vs Put Breakdown — Whether the buildup is on the call side (bullish positioning) or put side (hedging or bearish bets)
• Expiry Clustering — Which expiration dates are seeing the most accumulation, revealing the expected move timeline

Use case: Front-run institutional positioning by identifying where large players are building positions. Identify key strike levels that will act as magnets or barriers. Time entries based on expiry concentration.

4. Whale Alert

When a single trade exceeds $500K in premium, that's not retail — that's institutional conviction. Whale Alert tracks these massive single-order trades and scores them by size, aggressiveness, and market context.

• Premium Threshold — Single trades with $500K+ premium, classified by call/put and buy/sell side
• Aggressiveness Score — Did the whale pay at the ask (urgent, directional) or bid (passive, hedging)? Sweeps across exchanges score highest
• Repeat Whale Detection — Same ticker seeing multiple whale trades in the same direction within a session — coordinated institutional activity
• Context Analysis — Whale trade size relative to average daily volume and open interest. A $1M trade in a liquid name is different from $1M in a low-volume stock

Use case: Follow the biggest players in the market with conviction. Identify tickers where multiple whales are aligned. Use as confirmation for existing setups from other radars.

5. Gamma Flip

Gamma exposure determines whether market makers are buying dips (positive gamma) or selling into moves (negative gamma). When the market crosses the zero-gamma level, the regime changes — and volatility character shifts dramatically. This radar detects these regime changes in real-time.

• Zero-Gamma Cross — Price crossing the net-zero gamma level, detected within minutes of the flip
• Regime Classification — Positive gamma (supportive, mean-reverting, low-vol) vs negative gamma (volatile, trending, amplified moves)
• Key Gamma Levels — Put wall (support), call wall (resistance), and max-gamma strike (magnet) updated every scan
• Flip Frequency — How often the flip has occurred recently. High frequency = indecision zone. Low frequency = stable regime

Use case: Switch between mean-reversion strategies (positive gamma) and breakout strategies (negative gamma). Know when to tighten stops vs let winners run. Understand why the market suddenly became volatile or calm.

All Five Radars. One Dashboard.

Each radar runs independently but the real edge comes from combining them. When IV Crush + Whale Alert + Gamma Flip align on the same ticker — that's a high-conviction setup that few traders in the market can see.

• Scans the entire options market during market hours
• Multi-timeframe analysis with weighted confidence scoring
• Push alerts for the highest-conviction signals
• Full integration with Options Flow, Chain, and Confluence Radar