• What is a sweep / split?

  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 singlPopular

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

  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 0.49Some readers

• What is a block?

  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.Some readers

• Key fundamentals to understand

  Options money flow can be used as a strategic tool in your trading arsenal, but you have to have some experience with it to fully appreciate the power of it. If you are new to the game of order flow, the best thing to do is to just sit back, watch what’s happening, and get familiar with the fundamentals. Don’t always assume large orders coming through the system are fool proof trades that you should take. Remember, we really don’t know what the intentions are behind these orders. More than liSome readers

• What are dark pool prints?

  It is highly recommended you read this article to get a better understanding of what dark pool prints are and how they work. Click here to read the article Some additional dark pool definitions: Dark sweep: Similar to an option sweep, this order goes through multiple exchanges to get filled. Late signature: OrdersFew readers

• What are the best filters to sort options flow with?

  To help answer your question, we highly recommend the "opening orders" filters for everyone.  This really helps narrow down the order flow even further and gives us more conviction and a high probability these are being purchased. Additionally, these are the ones we only tweet about. These are really great to watch and start building a strategy around.Few readers

• Conditional Codes

  Trades inside the data table showcase conditional codes in the COND column. Here are some general meanings: Floor A floor trader is an exchange member who executes transactions from the floor of the exchange, exclusively for their own account. Floor traders fulfill an important role in commodity and stock markets by providing liquidity and narrowing bid-ask spreads. Floor traders may also be referred to as individual liquidity providers or registered competitive traders. Cross A crosFew readers

• Why don't some trades show up?

  Our proprietary software captures options trades based off of a custom criteria that we believe shows the most value and are the highest quality trade alerts. This is our algorithm working here. That also means we don't capture all trades. We are not a full blown trading feed just an options alert data provider.Few readers

• SPX and VIX spot prices

  You may be wondering why the spot prices for VIX and SPX within the order flow is different from what you may see on the stock chart. This is because SPX and VIX are traded on a futures basis. More information here: SPX: https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/es00 Mini VIX Futures: https://www.cboe.com/tradableproducts/vix/vixfutures/Few readers