Tweet

Crowd Traders

Jan 20 • 9 tweets • 3 min read

@FuzzyLogicBrock

@FuzzyLogicBrock @unusual_whales Sweeps *can* be meaningful, but as always, there's more to it, just as with cross trades (

https://twitter.com/Crowd_Traders/status/1479935506859405314

) and floor trades (

https://twitter.com/Crowd_Traders/status/1476598973347643397

)...

But I do not (yet) treat them differently than other codes until I see complete DD to support the trade idea.

What is a "sweep" trade?

An options sweep (or sweep-to-fill) occurs when a broker splits an order into many parts in order to get the best possible pricings currently offered on the market.

These orders can often be filled across multiple exchanges and the broker will continue to fill the order lot by lot, always for the best possible price, until the order is completely filled.

Sweeps might stand out because they imply some entity (or entities) wanted to enter specific options contracts regardless of their price, as they were focused only on having their entire bulk order filled as quickly as possible.

While the magnitude of sweeps might stand out, each one must be investigated thoroughly to understand what the sentiment of a trader is as compared to the overall flow.

Thanks for sticking with me, here is a filter for the largest sweeps on the day:
unusualwhales.com/flow?limit=250…

A key takeaway: sweeps are almost never retail traders--and also are not designed to be "manipulative". While an entity wants to enter, this is still an order initiation, just as a limit or market order, nothing more.

The issue is when we start touching on iceberg orders...

If sweeps are coming in just a few contracts at a time, throughout the day, with ever-growing momentum, we must look at order book and see if a large whale (institutional or otherwise) is sitting on a number of contracts outside of what is seen on the order books.

The reason they would disguise their position to begin with would be to avoid all but crashing a stock if they sold as much as they wanted to sell all at once or cause another memening if they bought as much as they wanted to buy...

So, sweeps can be used to see whales entering.

But, as always, they are not a clear indication, and as expressed here, you have to look deeper to see where whales are positioning themselves--and this bleeds into BTFs (block trading facilities), but I'll touch on that another day.

For now, let me know how you trade sweeps!

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @Crowd_Traders

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 20

@unusual_whales

@unusual_whales posts unusual option alerts throughout the day.

The most consternating thing about them are the emojis, so I'll go through some of the most important ones, as well as defining all of the aspects in an unusual alert.

As always, if you have questions, please ask!

https://twitter.com/unusual_whales/status/1483888115781615620

@unusual_whales

Please note that these alerts are *NOT* buy or sell signals; they are alerts of unusual activity as determined by the @unusual_whales algorithm/bot.

How alerts work (from the docs!):
- When unusual activity has been detected, these trades are placed into an alert queue.

- Alerts may be trigged by one or more transactions and are not always the movements of a single trader.
- You can view the trade(s) that triggered the alert by opening an alert.
- There may be a delay between transactions that trigged the alert and the alert itself being issued.

Read 12 tweets

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 20

@unusual_whales

Open interest (OI) can be confusing and sometimes misleading.

I will try to take this piece by piece.

However, as to not bury the lede, I'll quickly review one particular trick as to why OI is important when looking at the @unusual_whales flow:

In the flow, trades appended with 💼 can be intuited as bought or sold to open. This determination is made if the size of the trade was greater than the chain's OI.

Be mindful! Trades without the 💼 symbol might still have been bought or sold to open!

This is why OI can be useful, but what even is it?

Open interest (OI) defines how many contracts are not yet settled by the end of the day; in other words, how many contracts are being held that have not yet found the opposite side: a buyer for a seller or a seller for a buyer.

Read 9 tweets

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 19

@unusual_whales

$MRVL - 🌊🌊 UOA per @unusual_whales 🌊🌊 - 5,300 trades came in BTO $100C for 18-Mar, but were CANCELED (struck out) and then came back. Floor trades. 26.5% OTM. $578K in prem spent. Flow is 62.91% bullish, P/C of .394 (bullish).

Please, let me explain canceled trades:

@unusual_whales

@unusual_whales Trades that are struck through have been cancelled for one reason or another.

Trades can be modified or nullified for a variety of reasons, and per the SEC:
for the maintenance of a fair and orderly market

@unusual_whales

@unusual_whales Exchanges can erroneously send more trades than were actually placed, especially during times of high volume.

This is a normal occurrence.

Source: sec.gov/rules/sro/nyse…

@unusual_whales shows canceled trades, unlike other data providers, because it's unadulterated as such.

Read 4 tweets

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 18

@unusual_whales

$TSM - 🌊🌊 UOA per @unusual_whales 🌊🌊 - Sweeps on the $155C for 28-Jan. Of note, OI ran up after similar volume on the 13th, remained steady Friday, and now we are seeing similar, albeit higher volume, on the chain today, overtaking OI. Of note, these were orders were sweeps:

@unusual_whales

@unusual_whales An options sweep (or sweep-to-fill) occurs when a broker splits an order into many parts in order to get the best possible pricings currently offered on the market.

@unusual_whales

@unusual_whales These orders can often be filled across multiple exchanges and the broker will continue to fill the order lot by lot, always for the best possible price, until the order is completely filled.

Read 7 tweets

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 13

@unusual_whales

There is a new @unusual_whales Hottest Chains & Tickers page: unusualwhales.com/flow/hot_chain…

This is a new and exciting, albeit easily misunderstood tool.

So, as always, please allow me to explain:

To get to the page without a link, it's actually sort of hidden (I suspect to test it out!).

I highlighted and ninja'd the link to click on from the current page (here: unusualwhales.com/flow/hot_chains).

Or just use this link to get there directly: unusualwhales.com/flow/hot_chain…

This is what the new page looks like.

It has some unique columns I have not seen elsewhere on the flow, such as "OHLC" and "Acc factor", so I feel obligated to review these as best I can.

I will review every column, though, so feel free to skip to whichever definition you need:

Read 22 tweets

Crowd Traders

@Crowd_Traders

Jan 11

https://twitter.com/Crowd_Traders/status/1476630422087999495

Since folks are asking for examples since the "how to save filters" thread (

https://twitter.com/Crowd_Traders/status/1476630422087999495

), here are some @unusual_whales Flow searches to help you get started.

These are NOT the only ways to filter the Flow. You'll come up with your own, in time.

Share yours, too!

Example 1

Sizable orders, not deep ITM, by time. Good for watching live during the day.

unusualwhales.com/flow?limit=250…

Filters:
- Order sizes of 150 more contracts.
- Size (of order) over open interest (OI).
- Deep ITM trades excluded.
- Sorted descending by time.

Example 2

Large premium orders, sorted by size. Good for historical review for the day.

unusualwhales.com/flow?limit=250…

Filters:
- Greater than or equal to $25,000 premiums.
- Size (of order) over open interest (OI).
- Sorted descending by size of orders.
- Intraday only.

Read 7 tweets

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Share this page!

Crowd Traders

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @Crowd_Traders

Crowd Traders

Crowd Traders

Crowd Traders

Crowd Traders

Crowd Traders

Crowd Traders

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Like this author's thread?