Option Big Flows works similarly to Big Trades but for the options market. It plots markers on your chart whenever a large premium trade is executed, helping you identify when significant institutional or professional money is entering or exiting the market through options. Each marker tells you whether the flow was on the call or put side, whether it was a buy or sell, and whether the position was opened or closed.

Note: Option Big Flows is available on SPX only, as it requires real CBOE participant data.

How to Add Option Big Flows

1. Go to New in the top menu

2. Click on Option Chart

   

   
   

3. A Select Instrument dialog will appear. Since Option Big Flows requires CBOE data, select SPX - Symbol: ES-CME, Exchange: CME

   

   
   

4.  Click to open the chart

5. Once the Option Chart is loaded, click the Indicator Add button on the chart toolbar

6. Search for Option Big Flows and click + to add it

7. Click the settings icon to open the configuration window

   

Understanding the Markers

Option Big Flows uses two marker shapes to distinguish between calls and puts:

• Diamond - Call side flow

• Square - Put side flow

Each marker also tells you whether the position was opened or closed:

• Filled marker - Position opened

• Hollow marker - Position closed

And the color tells you the direction:

• Green - Buy

• Red - Sell

  

Understanding Key Terms

Before reading the markers, it helps to understand a few core options concepts:

• Call - An option that gives the buyer the right to buy the underlying at a set price. Traders buy calls when they expect price to go up

• Put - An option that gives the buyer the right to sell the underlying at a set price. Traders buy puts when they expect price to go down

• Premium - The total dollar value paid for the option contract, calculated as the contract price multiplied by volume. This is what the Min. Premium filter uses to decide which flows are large enough to plot

• Open - The trade is establishing a brand new options position

• Close - The trade is exiting or reducing an existing options position

• DTE (Days to Expiration) - The number of days remaining before the option contract expires. A DTE of 0 means the option expires the same day

Each combination of call/put and buy/sell carries a different market bias:

• Buying a call - a bullish trade, betting price will rise

• Selling a call - a bearish trade, betting price will stay below the strike

• Buying a put - a bearish trade, betting price will fall

• Selling a put - a bullish trade, betting price will stay above the strike

Keep this in mind when reading the markers, since a buy is not always bullish. Buying a call is bullish, but buying a put is bearish, even though both are technically a “buy.”

Settings

General

Option

• Expiration - Filter flows by expiration. Options available: 0 DTE, <= 1d, <= 2d, <= 3d, <= 4d, <= 5d, <= 6d, <= 7d, <= 31d, <= 91d, All expirations. Default is 0 DTE

• Min. Premium (USD) - Set the minimum premium threshold in USD. Only flows exceeding this amount will be plotted. Default is $1,000,000

Filter

• Action - Enabled - Enable this toggle to filter flows by action type (Buy or Sell)

• Action - Filter - Choose between Buy or Sell when the Action filter is enabled

• Hide call/put strike overlap - When enabled, this hides trades where both a call and a put are executed at the same strike simultaneously. These are typically offsetting strategies where the net directional exposure is neutral. Disable this if you want to see all flows regardless. Default is enabled

  

Call Plot

Global

• Marker - Choose the marker shape for call flows. Options: Circle, Square, Diamond, Text. Default is Diamond

Generic

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for generic call markers

• Buy - Color for buy call flow. Default is green

• Sell - Color for sell call flow. Default is red

Open

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for open position markers. Default is Fill

• Open buy - Color for call open buy. Default is green

• Open sell - Color for call open sell. Default is red

Close

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for close position markers. Default is Hollow

• Close buy - Color for call close buy. Default is green

• Close sell - Color for call close sell. Default is red

  

Put Plot

Global

• Marker - Choose the marker shape for put flows. Options: Circle, Square, Diamond, Text. Default is Square

Generic

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for generic put markers

• Buy - Color for buy put flow. Default is green

• Sell - Color for sell put flow. Default is red

Open

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for open position markers. Default is Fill

• Open buy - Color for put open buy. Default is green

• Open sell - Color for put open sell. Default is red

Close

• Display mode - Choose between Fill or Hollow for close position markers. Default is Hollow

• Close buy - Color for put close buy. Default is green

• Close sell - Color for put close sell. Default is red

  

  Tip: By default, green means Buy and red means Sell, same as the Call Plot. This is the literal action, not market sentiment.

  • A bought call is bullish and shows green

    

  • A bought put is bearish, but also shows green by default, since it is still a buy

    

  If you want the colors to reflect sentiment instead of the literal action, invert the Put Plot colors in Settings so Buy is red and Sell is green.

  • With inverted colors, a bought put now shows red, matching its bearish sentiment

  

  • With inverted colors, a sold put now shows green, matching its bullish sentiment

    

  This way, green always means bullish and red always means bearish for Put Plot Colors, making the chart easier to scan at a glance without checking each tooltip.
  Note: Only invert the Put Plot colors. If you also invert the Call Plot, the logic will break and the colors will no longer reflect sentiment correctly.

Size Settings

Text

• Text size - Set the font size when marker type is set to Text. Default is 12

• Text color - Set the text color. Default is white

Marker

• Marker min size - Minimum size of the marker. Default is 60

• Marker max size - Maximum size of the marker. Default is 120

• Marker max std dev - Controls the scaling of marker size relative to standard deviation of premium. Default is 1.0

  

Example - How to Use Option Big Flows

Once added to your chart, you will see markers appear whenever a large options trade crosses your Min. Premium threshold. Here is a simple way to use them:

• A green filled diamond appearing near a key level shows a large call buy opening, often a bullish signal worth watching for continuation

• A red filled square appearing at resistance shows a large put buy opening, often a bearish signal suggesting institutional money is positioning for a decline

• Hollow markers show positions closing, which can signal that the earlier flow is being unwound or that a trader is taking profit

• Clusters of same colored markers around the same price level can highlight a zone where significant institutional activity is concentrated, useful as a level to watch for reactions

• Use the Min. Premium filter to focus only on the largest trades if you want to cut out noise from smaller retail sized flow

• If you inverted the Put Plot colors, all green markers now consistently mean bullish sentiment and all red markers mean bearish, making it faster to read overall positioning at a glance

  

Option Big Flows can also be combined with other indicators for extra context:

• Pair it with Option Levels or Option Envelopes to see whether large flows are clustering near existing gamma levels, which can add weight to those levels

• Pair it with Option Profile to check whether a large flow lines up with an existing call wall or put wall, since flow near an established wall may reinforce it

• Pair it with Option Gex Heatmap to see whether a large flow coincides with a shift in dealer exposure at that strike

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