The Blubber

General Options Definitions and Unusual Whales Terminology
This page is under construction. Last updated 6/3/2022

• % Diff
  the percentage difference between an underlying stock price and an options contract's strike price.

• Ask
  the ask price price represents the minimum price that a seller is willing to take for the respective security.
  In the flow feed the '🛍️ Ask-side' emoji is attached to trades in which the spot price of the transaction was at or closer to the ask.
  In respect to the Unusual Alerts the '🛍️ Ask-side' emoji signifies that most of the volume on the alerted contract took place at or closer to the ask.

• ATM (at the money)
  a term used to describe an option with a strike price that is equal to (or around) the current market price of the underlying stock. See ITM and OTM.

• Bearish Premium 🐻
  in relation to a ticker the bearish premium is derived from the total premium transacted from ask-side puts and bid-side calls.
  In relation to an options contract, bearish premium refers to premium that is directionally bearish: ask-side for puts, bid-side for calls.

• Bid
  the bid price represents the maximum price that a buyer is willing to pay for the respective security.
  In the flow feed the '🦴 Bid-side' emoji is attached to trades in which the spot price of the transaction was at or closer to the bid.
  In respect to the Unusual Alerts the 🦴 'Bid-side' emoji signifies that most of the volume on the alerted contract took place at or closer to the bid.

• Bid-Ask Spread
  the bid-ask spread represents the amount between the current bid and ask prices for the respective security. The bid-ask spread can be seen as a measurement of the market liquidity.

• Bullish Premium 🐂
  in relation to a ticker the bullish premium is derived from the total premium transacted from ask-side calls and bid-side puts.
  In relation to an options contract, bullish premium refers to premium that is directionally bullish: ask-side for calls, bid-side for puts.

• Buy to Open (BTO)/Buy to Close (BTC)

• Cash Covered Put/Cash Secured Put
  
• Covered Call
  
• Cross Trade
  a Cross Trade occurs when a broker executes buy and sell orders for the same asset across different client accounts and then reports them on an exchange. View this blog post for more information on the mechanics of Cross Trades.
  
• Dark Pool
  
• DTE/days to expiration
  the DTE is the number of days to expiration for a respective options contract. An option expiring the same day would be referred to as a zero DTE.
  
• Emojis
  Unusual Whales utilizes emojis in order to add additional meaning to options data. Visit the emoji legend for more information.
  
• Floor Trade
  a Floor Trader trades exclusively for their own account. Trades made by these traders will be marked by the flag ‘Floor.’ View this blog post on Floor trades.
  
• ITM (in the money)
  a term used to describe an option with intrinsic value. An ITM call option would have a strike price lower than the current market price of the underlying stock. An ITM put option would have a strike price higher than the current market price of the underlying stock. See ATM and OTM.
  
• Max Pain
  The max pain price refers to the strike price with the most open options contracts (calls and puts). This price, at expiration, would result in financial losses for the largest number of traders. This concept stems from the 'maximum pain theory', which suggests that stock prices tend to gravitate to their 'maximum pain strike price.'
  
• Open Interest (OI)
  open interest is the total number of outstanding contracts. The Open Interest value only updates once per day. Changes to the open interest can be viewed on the Unusual Whales website at 0630 AM EST.
  
• OTM (out of the money)
  a term used to describe an option with no intrinsic value. An OTM call option would have a strike price higher than the current market price of the underlying stock. An OTM put option would have a strike price lower than the current market price of the underlying stock. See ATM and ITM.
  
• P/C Ratio or Put/Call ratio
  the put/call ratio compares the total number of puts and calls traded. The put-call ratio is calculated by dividing the number of traded put options by the number of traded call options.

• Premium
  as it pertains to the Unusual Whales flow feed, the premium value represents the total value of a trade or trades.

• Side
  the Side of a trade in the flow feed is a quick reference as to where the Spot price of the trade occurred in relation to the bid and ask price. A trade can have a side value of 'Buy', 'Sell', or "None.' View this blog post for more information on the Side of the trade.
  

• Size
  as it pertains to the Unusual Whales flow feed, the size value represents the number of contracts transacted.

• Spot
  as it pertains to the Unusual Whales flow feed, the spot value is the price that the contracts were transacted for. The spot value is compared against the bid-ask spread in order to determine the bullish/bearish indicator. View this blog post for more information on how the spot price plays a role.

• Volume
  Volume is simply the number of shares or contracts traded in a particular security over a specific period of time (generally one trading session). The 'Volume' value for all securities will reset at market open.
  In the flow feed the volume column will display the total number of contracts transacted for the respective contract, with the respective trade's size being included in that value.
  In respect to the Unusual Alerts the volume represents the total number of contracts transacted for the alerted contract.