Question 1

What are the highlights inside the data table?

Accepted Answer

${color}[#f18800]($1 million orders)

Highlighted in Orange, these are simply massive $1 million and over option orders that come in above ask. Pay attention to these!

${color}[#a1008f](Unusual orders)

Highlighted in purple, unusual option orders are defined by volume and/or trade size being greater then the open interest with increasing implied volatility. Not only does this show extreme urgency on the trader’s side, but it's also a good indicator to understand if the trader is being bullish or bearish on the underlying stock.

${color}[#00beff](Highly Unusual)

Highlighted in blue, these are very aggressive orders that have very large size, expire soon and are far out of the money. Similar to unusual orders, these are a very good indicator to understand if it's more of a pure bullish or bearish bet.

Size lots

Any orders that have contract size equal to or greater than 5,000 is highlighted in blue.

Question 2

How to add a coupon code

Accepted Answer

You can add a valid coupon code into the "Add promotion code" field located on the left hand side. If you are on a mobile device, you can find this field by accessing "view details" at the top right corner.

Desktop example

Mobile example

Question 3

What is a sweep / split?

Accepted Answer

Sweep orders signal momentum and urgency by way of intelligent market routing systems. Typically broken into smaller orders and hitting multiple exchanges, this is used by smart money to stay “irrelevant” and under the radar. This is a very good indicator that a trader wants to get into a position as fast as possible because they might know something that may affect the underlying stock’s share price the very next day or in the near future.

Split orders work the same way but are filled on single exchange systems.

Question 4

How do I know if these orders are bought or sold?

Accepted Answer

Cheddar Flow tracks option orders that are filled at the ask, above the ask, mid market, bid and below bid

Examples of how Cheddar Flow picks up BUY orders

ASK - Market 0.50x0.55, Filled at 0.55 ABOVE ASK - Market 0.50x0.55, Filled at 0.56

Example of how Cheddar Flow picks up MID MARKET orders MID - Market 0.50x0.55, Filled at 0.54

Examples of how Cheddar Flow picks up SELL orders

BID - Market 0.50x0.55, Filled 0.50 BELOW BID - Market 0.50x0.55, Filled 0.49

A major thing to point out is that you need to understand that whether contracts are actually buyer initiated or seller initiated is an ASSUMPTION. All we indicate is the side of market it traded on. Just because a trade is in the offer side does not mean it is an opening position. You can buy to close a position as well.

Question 5

Accessing advanced order details

Accepted Answer

${youtube}Advanced Order Details

Accessing Advanced Order Details

To view advanced details for a specific options trade, either:

Click on the expiration date in the main table, or
Click the three dots icon at the end of the table row

Note: Data updates in near real-time, approximately every minute. If no data is displayed, please wait briefly for the system to populate the information.

|| Some SPX option trades may not show any data at all. We are working on updating this.

Order Breakdown

This section provides an overview of the key details for the selected options trade processed by our system.

Trade Side Distribution

The pie chart offers a visual breakdown of the premium distribution across all trades for the selected options order. It highlights which side (Ask, Bid, etc.) is experiencing the heaviest trading activity.

Contract Volume and Open Interest

This chart tracks the total options volume for the selected contract over a 5-day period. It also displays the change in open interest and the contract's price movement.

Historical Data

The table presents historical data for the selected options contract over the past 2 weeks, including:

Changes in volume and open interest
Closing price of the contract
Implied volatility

Use Case

This data is really useful for determining if an options contract is being bought or sold. Look for the following:

Volume

If volume is significantly higher than the existing open

Question 6

What is a block?

Accepted Answer

Option block orders usually signal massive size purchases used by institutional investors and traders with very deep pockets. These are negotiated privately from the public market, meaning you won’t be seeing individual retail investors buying these up.

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