Crossed Sale

A Golden Sweep Option (GSO) is popularized by the folks at Flowalgo and it is basically a very large order that hits the market and takes all or most the inventory/offers at once. This is usually a very high probability signal given the aggressive stance of the trader(s) behind it.  These orders can be both bullish…

This method is normally used when Options are overpriced. The trader would simply buy stocks in the open market and sell the equivalent position in the options market. This is done because the trader sees that the Options price is too high and anticipates that it will eventually decrease. So he/she decides to cash in…

This is the process of carrying out the terms of an options contract. A call buyer can exercise his or her right to buy the stock at the strike price. A put owner can exercise his or her right to sell the contract. See also: Exercise Price, Exercise Settlement Value, Automatic Exercise

This is when you sell a call and buy a call with a higher strike price. A Bear Call Spread is used when you have a bearish outlook on a stock and you want to bet against it by going short but you don’t want to shirt the stock because it theoretically has unlimited risk….

This is a measure of a stock’s volatility relative to the S&P 500 Index. High Beta stocks have high volatility. Stocks that have a beta reading of 1.00 or greater tend to move faster or are more volatile than the S&P index. And stocks that have a beta less than 1.00 tend to move slower…

A block trade is, as the name suggests, a single large order that hits the Unusual Options Activity Tape all at once.  A Sweep is a large order that is broken up and hits the tape in many different small orders.  Here is an example of Block Trade:  And here is an example of a…