What does the options opportunity screener find?

It sends preset and explicit filters to the provider, keeps up to 20 returned candidates, and fetches IV/NBBO details by contract identifier. Matching reasons describe the applied query; they do not reveal intent or prove that every metric was independently checked.

Can I screen across the market or focus on a stock?

Yes. Finance Agent can start with the available US options market or narrow the screen to selected stock tickers and other research criteria.

How is this different from an options chain?

A chain organizes contracts for an underlying and expiration. This screener starts with activity or event criteria to surface a bounded candidate list; use a current chain for fuller pricing and contract comparisons.

Is the displayed implied volatility a live quote?

No. The card labels IV as coming from the last transaction. It can differ from a current quote-derived IV or be unavailable for a candidate.

Can I trade at the displayed bid or ask?

No. The displayed NBBO is reference context, not a guaranteed executable price. Check a current broker quote and market depth before any order.

Why might a result be incomplete or change later?

The screen is limited to returned matches, some contract details may be missing, and the feed does not state an explicit market snapshot date. Market activity and quotes can change after the displayed retrieval time.

Finance Agent capability

Find US Option Contracts to Research Next

Pineify Finance Agent queries Unusual Whales for up to 20 US option-contract candidates, across the available market or up to 10 selected tickers. Choose active, unusual, or earnings-window presets, then inspect the applied filters, returned activity, and separately retrieved contract details. The selection reasons describe the requested screen, not a verified explanation of trader behavior.

Screen option candidates Explore all capabilities

Opens Finance Agent with an AAPL options-screening question ready to send.

Finance Agent AAPL options-screening result with three call and put candidates, volume, open interest, USD premium, last-transaction IV, reference NBBO, and selection reasons — Historical AAPL active-screen excerpt with retrieval time September 23, 2026, 13:53:45 UTC. Three call/put candidates show volume, OI, premium, last-transaction IV, and reference NBBO. The visible reasons are Preset: active and DTE 0–any; the card explicitly warns that its market snapshot date is unverified.

Contract discovery, not a trading signal

Move from broad activity to specific contracts

Set tickers or sectors, calls/puts, days to expiry, minimum volume, open interest, volume/OI, premium, and Delta bounds. Sort by volume, premium, or volume/OI in descending order. The native tool has no page input and returns at most 20 candidates; the provider also excludes contracts with volume below 200.

The native result card keeps each contract’s ticker, call or put direction, strike, expiry, volume, open interest, premium, available last-transaction IV, reference bid and ask, and matching reasons together. These are screening observations, not a judgment that a contract is suitable or likely to profit.

Use cases

Ways to use the options opportunity screener

Find active contracts

Surface contracts with trading activity and compare their volume, open interest, premium, expiry, and selection reasons.

Investigate unusual volume

The unusual preset requests volume above OI, out-of-the-money contracts, ask-side activity of at least 50%, common stocks/ETFs/ADRs, and defaults of at most 60 DTE and at least $10,000 premium. Explicit DTE and premium inputs can override those defaults. This is not a historical volume z-score.

Prepare for earnings research

The earnings preset defaults to earnings within 0–14 days and expiration 0–7 days after earnings. Review the returned event date and release time separately; the day-level window alone does not establish that a contract remains open when an after-hours announcement occurs.

Prompt examples

Options-screening questions you can ask Finance Agent

“Which active AAPL option contracts have the most activity in the latest available screen? Show why each call or put matched and what quote context is available.”“Find US option contracts with unusual volume. Which underlying stocks, expirations, and activity figures should I investigate next?”“Which NVDA options match an upcoming earnings-window screen? Compare their expirations and activity, and flag missing quote details.”

Limits to keep in view

A result is a bounded first batch, not a complete inventory. A full batch is marked as possibly truncated; invalid or expired records can reduce the displayed count without refilling it. Why selected repeats applied filters rather than independently testing every returned metric.
The screener does not provide an explicit market snapshot date. Days to expiry are measured from the New York query date; inspect the retrieval time and verify current market conditions separately.
IV comes from the last transaction. The provider’s detail timestamp is last trade time, not a dedicated quote timestamp. NBBO is reference context; crossed, negative, missing, or entirely zero quotes are left unavailable.
Complete results can be cached for roughly 45 seconds during the service’s weekday extended-session window and three minutes outside it. Partial detail failures are flagged. Retrieval time is not a verified market snapshot time or a guarantee of a fresh quote.
Volume, premium, and unusual activity do not reveal a trader’s intent, hedge, or expected return. This screen is research support, not investment advice.

FAQ

Questions about screening option candidates

Turn a candidate list into a research plan

Use the screen to choose contracts for further checks, then verify current quotes, liquidity, catalysts, payoff, and risk before making a decision.

Open Finance Agent

For informational and research use only. No output is investment advice or a guarantee of future performance.