Hey trader,
Big options prints typically indicate institutional traders…but not always.
For example, Joby saw 76,000 contracts hit $13 calls this morning.
The Console pulled the print log apart and the real story came back the opposite of what the scanner showed: it was all retail.
Average traders can’t distinguish between big money players and every day traders.
But I can…
And pretty soon, you’ll be able to as well.
Because all you really need is three filters…
The First Filter Is Block Size
A block is one print of 1,000 contracts or more at a single price.
The fill lands as one transaction. The size makes it institutional by definition because retail accounts cannot get that volume executed at a single price point.
Where the block fills tells you which side the institution is on.
A block at the ask means a buyer paid up to get filled. A block at the bid means a seller hit the offer to clear inventory.
Joby this morning had no blocks anywhere in the print log. That is the first signal that institutional money was not driving the move.
The Second Filter Is Sweep Structure
A sweep is a fractured order that fills across multiple exchanges at the same time.
Ten thousand contracts might break into smaller chunks. Those chunks fire across different exchanges within milliseconds, mostly at the same price.
The misread on sweeps is to call them retail because the individual fills look small.
They are not. A sweep is an institution paying for speed by accepting fragmentation across venues, and the Console treats sweeps and blocks as the same signal.
Joby had a handful of small sweeps in the 1,200 to 1,500 range, which is nothing against 76,000 total contracts. The sweep filter cleared the read.
The Third Filter Is Volume To Open Interest
The ratio above 1.2 confirms an opening trade.
Open interest is the number of contracts already on the books from prior sessions. Volume is what trades today.
If volume exceeds open interest by 20% or more, new positions are being opened rather than old ones closed.
Opening trades carry directional weight because someone is taking new risk. Closing trades carry the opposite weight because someone is removing it.
The two read identically on a flow scanner that only shows volume and color. That is why most traders miss the distinction.
Joby cleared 1.2 on the alert, which confirms the retail buying was opening new positions.
How The Three Filters Decide The Trade
Run the same chain through the filters and the dealer’s position becomes clear.
No blocks plus no sweeps plus opening retail buying means the dealer is short the calls.
The dealer ends up short gamma at the strike. That means they have to buy stock as price rises to stay hedged.
That is the setup for a gamma squeeze.
Joby’s 10% short float and 3.26 cover ratio pour fuel on the structure. A break of $13 forces the dealer to buy into a tight float, and a short squeeze layers on top of the gamma squeeze.
Flip the inputs and the trade flips.
If the Console had shown a 40,000-contract block sold at the bid, the dealer would be long the calls. Long gamma above the strike pins price at $13 instead of chasing it through.
The same chain on the same stock would be a pin trade rather than a squeeze trade.
What This Looks Like On Other Names
The filters work the same way on any chain.
Wendy’s this morning ran a 49,948-contract block on the $6 July puts. That cleared all three filters in one print and locked in a pin setup at $6.
DRAM ran a 10,000-contract block on the August $45 puts at $3 a contract, again clearing the filters in a single transaction. That is a $3 million directional bet from an institution.
Joby ran 76,000 contracts at $13 with none of the three filters triggering institutional.
Same scanner volume, completely different read. The filters are what separate them.
What The Console Reads That A Scanner Cannot
A standard flow scanner shows volume and color. Green for buying, red for selling.
The number is the number.
The Console reads block size, sweep structure, fill location, and the volume-to-open-interest ratio together on every alert. Those four data points decide whether a print is institutional, opening, and directional.
By the time the chart confirms a move, the print log already named who started it.
That is the difference between trading the flow and trading against it.
See exactly how Block Hunter catches institutional positioning before the crowd catches on.
Brandon Chapman, CMT
Creator of Ghost Prints
