The option chain, Open Interest, Combined OI and Multistrike OI all answer the same kind of question: what is positioning doing in the instrument you have chosen to watch? The screener answers the earlier one. Where is the action today?
The Options Screener on IBT-ProTrade is a market wide contract scanner: a single live view of the options market listed expiry wise across stock options and index options.
What is an options screener?
Pick an expiry, pick an Activity lens, and choose a Category of all, stocks or index. The screener lists the top contracts for that lens, each row showing the contract, its LTP, the LTP change and the OI change. Every column is sortable in either direction with a click on the header.
Instead of opening the option chain of every underlying one by one, one list tells you what the whole F&O tape is doing. Then you zoom in.
The Activity lenses
Active by Contract ranks options by the number of contracts traded, showing where participation is widest.
Active by Value ranks them by rupee turnover, showing where the larger money sits. The two lenses often surface different contracts entirely, since a low priced popular option can top the first while a high premium contract tops the second.
OI Gainers lists contracts adding the most open interest, which marks where fresh positions are being created.
OI Losers shows where open interest is being dismantled fastest, meaning positions unwound or abandoned.
Price Gainers and Price Losers rank contracts by premium change. On a strongly trending day the two lists tend to read as mirror images of each other.
Volume Gainers surfaces contracts whose traded volume jumped the most, which is often the earliest sign that a strike has become a focal point.
Reading premium and open interest together
A ranking on its own tells you a contract is busy, not what the activity means. Premium direction read alongside OI change is what identifies the footprint.
| What the row shows | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Premium rising with OI rising | Long buildup, fresh buying backing the move |
| Premium falling with OI rising | Short buildup, fresh writing pressing the contract down |
| Premium rising with OI falling | Short covering or unwinding, writers exiting, the move may lack fresh fuel |
| Premium falling with OI falling | Long unwinding, buyers exiting, interest fading |
Column reference
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Symbol / Contract | The underlying with strike, option type and expiry. Click the symbol for detailed information. |
| LTP | Last traded price of the contract, with change and change percentage alongside. |
| Type | Call or put. Sort to group all calls or all puts together. |
| Lot Size | The contract's lot size for that underlying. |
| Strike | The strike price of the contract. |
| Change in Price | Premium change from the previous close to now. |
| OI Change % | Percentage change in open interest from the previous close. |
| OI | Total open interest the contract currently holds. |
| Volume Change | How much the contract's traded volume has gained or lost. |
A three step routine
Step 1. Read the character of the tape. Open Price Gainers and see which side dominates. Puts crowding the top reflects a falling tape, calls crowding it reflects strength.
Step 2. Narrow down. Switch lenses, OI Gainers for fresh positioning and Active by Value for where the larger money is, then filter by expiry, type and category. A contract appearing on more than one list warrants the most attention.
Step 3. Zoom in before deciding anything. Take the shortlist to the Option Chain and OI widgets for the full strike wise picture, including buildups and the support and resistance walls, before forming a view.
Go deeper. The screener tells you where the action is. The Option Chain shows the full strike by strike picture with premiums and Greeks, Open Interest maps the support and resistance walls, Combined OI gives the market wide verdict, Multistrike OI tracks chosen strikes minute by minute, and Max Pain distils it into one expiry level.
