What is the ring? (What is the Direction Score, Options Score)
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The ring visualization shows two key scores:
Direction Score (Inner Ring - Green): Measures the strength of the directional signal based on technical analysis, market context, and options flow. Higher scores indicate stronger directional conviction.
Options Score (Outer Ring - Cyan): Evaluates the options setup quality, including IV rank, liquidity, and trade structure. This helps determine if the current options environment is favorable for trading.
What is IV Rank?
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IV Rank (Implied Volatility Rank) compares the current implied volatility to its historical range over the past year. It's expressed as a percentage (0-100%).
High IV Rank (70%+): Options are relatively expensive - consider selling strategies (credit spreads, covered calls).
Low IV Rank (30% or less): Options are relatively cheap - consider buying strategies (long calls/puts, debit spreads).
IV Rank helps you understand whether you're paying a premium or getting a discount on options.
When are earnings important?
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Earnings announcements can significantly impact stock prices and options pricing. OptionFlare highlights earnings dates because:
Before Earnings: IV typically increases (IV crush risk), making options more expensive. Consider strategies that benefit from volatility expansion or avoid holding through earnings.
After Earnings: IV often collapses, which can hurt long options positions but benefit short options strategies.
We show earnings days out so you can plan your trade timing and avoid unexpected volatility events.
What is a Flare?
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Flares are OptionFlare's currency for accessing premium analysis features. Each analysis you perform uses 1 Flare. You receive Flares when you sign up and can earn more through regular use.
Flares unlock:
• Deep analysis with FlareAware insights
• Advanced strategy recommendations
• Detailed options flow analysis
• Enhanced trade readiness assessments
What do our recommendation descriptions mean?
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Our trade readiness signals help you understand the current trading environment:
GO-CREDIT / GO-DEBIT: Strong setup - favorable conditions for credit or debit strategies respectively.
Ready-Credit / Ready-Debit: Good setup - conditions are acceptable for trading.
BLOCKED-DS: Direction Score too low - wait for a stronger directional signal.
Revisit Later: Current conditions aren't ideal - check back when market conditions change.
Why does my data show "Unavailable?"
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Data may show as "Unavailable" for several reasons:
Market Hours: Some data (like real-time options flow) is only available during market hours.
Data Source Issues: Temporary delays from our data providers.
New Ticker: Recently listed stocks may have limited historical data.
Data Processing: The ticker may be processing - try refreshing in a few moments.
If data remains unavailable, it may indicate the ticker isn't in our supported list (currently S&P 500 companies).
Found something that's not working? Let us know!