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 uses CBOE data and shows values on SPX charts only.

How to Add Option Big Flows

1. Open an SPX chart in DeepGamma Web

2. Click Indicators in the Menu Bar

3. Click the green Add indicator button at the bottom of the panel

4. Open the Options (Cboe) tab and search for Option Big Flows

5. The indicator is added to your chart and appears in the Indicators panel

6. Click the gear icon next to Option Big Flows to open its settings

   

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. By default, calls and puts use different colors:

• Call buy - Blue

• Call sell - Red

• Put buy - Orange

• Put sell - Green

  

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

The settings window is organized into sections. Scroll down to see them all. After making changes, click Apply to update the chart.

General

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

Note: When Expiration is set to Default, it uses the expiration selected under Expirations in the Settings quick bar.

• Min. premium (USD) - Set the minimum premium threshold in USD. Only flows exceeding this amount will be plotted. Default is 1000000

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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

• Open buy - Color for call open buy. Default is light blue

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

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

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

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

  

Put Plot

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Close buy - Color for put close buy. Default is dark yellow

• Close sell - Color for put close sell. Default is dark green

  

Size Settings

• 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 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

  

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

• An orange 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

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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