How to Harness Unusual Whales Screeners for Faster, Smarter Trade Ideas
If you're new to Unusual Whales or just want a better sense of how traders are using the platform’s tools to spot unusual activity, this breakdown walks through three of the most useful screeners: Flow Feed, Interval Flow, and the Stock Screener.
Each serves a slightly different purpose, and they can be layered together or used independently depending on how you trade. You’ll find full walkthroughs linked along the way if you want to dig deeper into setup and strategy.
Flow Feed: The Real-Time Look at Options Activity
The Flow Feed shows every options trade as it hits the tape—updated in real time—with plenty of filters to cut out noise and surface trades that might matter.
One option is to look for large, out-of-the-money contracts filled on the ask side. That setup often points to speculative, directional bets—especially when those contracts are also single-leg and come with substantial premium.
A simple starting point might include:
Ask-side only
OTM contracts
Premium greater than $250K
DTE between 14 and 180 days
Single-leg checked
It’s a straightforward way to track the kind of trades that sometimes lead price action. For a full breakdown of how to build and interpret Flow Feed filters, check out this article.
Interval Flow: Finding When the Activity Clusters
Interval Flow filters options trades based on when they happen. It groups trades into 5 minute intervals and highlights the ones where unusual bursts of activity occur.
This tool is often used to isolate moments when buyers (or sellers) come in aggressively over a short time span—either through one large order or a series of clustered trades.
Here’s an example setup:
Interval: 5 minutes
Ask % set to 70% or higher
Premium minimum: $100,000
% Multi-leg capped at 30%
Volume greater than Open Interest
ITM contracts excluded
That configuration focuses on newer, directional activity that hits quickly and with size. A recent example in $PLTR showed several thousand calls bought in one 5-minute window, mostly at the ask and against low open interest—a type of trade that stands out for further tracking.
The full Interval Flow breakdown can be found here.
Stock Screener: Starting with the Ticker
While Flow and Interval Feeds are trade-focused, the Stock Screener starts with the underlying. It’s helpful when you want to identify what’s moving broadly—based on volume, momentum, or unusual options activity.
You could filter by:
Most Active (by options volume)
52-Week Highs
Largest Net Premium
Volume compared to average
Each ticker can be expanded to reveal historical volume, price movement, and options flow, so it’s easy to follow patterns over time. You can also layer on sector filters, market cap ranges, and upcoming earnings dates.
For a step-by-step guide to customizing this screener, read the full article here.
Putting It All Together
A lot of traders will start with one screener and then branch out from there. For example:
Use the Stock Screener to find tickers making moves
Check Flow Feed to see if the options activity is unusual or aggressive
Confirm on Interval Flow whether the action hit all at once or built slowly over time
That kind of layering can help raise the signal-to-noise ratio and give better context for what’s actually happening behind the trades.
Want to Go Deeper?
Each of these screeners comes with its own set of filter options and advanced setups. You can learn more in these full guides:
How to Build and Use Interval Flow Features
Once your filters are set, they’re saved for future use and can become a quick part of your daily workflow.
Let us know what you’re building with them—you can share your own filters, feeds, and screeners on the Unusual Whales Community Page!!
