Thank you for all the great work! May I know how do you source the option flow data? Did you subscribe to other options data service or use a Bloomberg terminal?
I use my terminal yes. I then breakdown the data through my own parameters to seek out the most unusual activity of the day and then I break it down here in an easy to read table
Thank you for the quick response! I always want to learn technical analysis (chart looking) systematically but don’t know where to start, do you have any books/ online resource suggestions on this? Otherwise it will be great if you put all these info into a blogpost and share here with the subscribed members! I think this will be incredibly useful to many of us.
What do you want to know exactly? I’ll be honest most in here aren’t really beginners because they’re people looking for option flow more than anything and that’s not really for newbies so I’ve never really had anyone ask me for help with ta. With that said I can probably draw up something at some point when I have time but I would say something like YouTube is a valuable source vs books
Thanks for this post, James. I have more time now in my life so I really want to dig deeper in your unusual flow data and find the hidden gems myself. Btw maybe Safari has some spellchecker built in? I dont use Mac but maybe something like this? https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/check-spelling-and-grammar-on-mac-mchlp2299/mac Thanks again for your work and enjoy your time out :)
There is so much value in your chart reading explanations and ways to use the option data it is just nuts to me people are here to copy the book (sorry to say to all). Considering the timing aspect you will always be later than James stepping in (so different risk / reward), which although can be minor you also don’t have an exit strategy (because you wait for James if you follow him one on one) so the risk management is off from James stats. Which is crucial to being successful. And in the end: Would you rather get the fish or learn fishing?
Thanks for the update James. Keep up the good work and never forget to take care of yourself and the fam 👊
Thanks Kenny, all valid points. I think one has to understand what they’re doing and why. It’s very important because we all have different goals and timeframes. My level of risk taking might not work for others
Exactly. And if shit hits the fan, you know what to do as you will have a strategy for it. That’s where this options and put selling gets explosive as well. Hopefully a smooth ride over the summer with Amazon and Mr Jassy 🤞
Hopefully man I’d love to come back in a couple weeks and see a nice 25% gain from here in my book lol. I do think from here, those particular calls will go 200% minimum by expiration in 30 months even that would only be back at 2021 highs or so
A nice market pullback and AMZN consolidating sideways before a new breakout (and market regains trend upwards) would provide a good chance on 25%+ gain in the next 6-8weeks!
Thanks for the post. One question I have is when I look at the options data, how do you tell the direction of the bet being placed? For example, in the table listed above you listed ABNB in the “Puts Bought” column, but couldn’t that also be in the “Puts Sold” column as well? In other words, given that trades are two sided, how can you tell the direction of the bet?
When I see the trades come in, you see the full trade details on the bid/ask. Then you have to look at the open interest and see was it opening or closing and estimate. Where the trade was placed whether on the bid or ask is what tells you what the player doing.
Is there a threshold of order value that enters your radar? Obviously, you ignore all the $10k orders here and there. What is the minimum that catches your attention?
Thank you for doing all this work. This post finally made me a subscriber. Your substack is a refreshing alternative to all the chart stuff most of us have seen a thousand times before.
Thanks for the kind words. I have a unique process. I’ve proven it works over the past year doing this. Anyone can apply my process to their own book. I just try to point out pockets of strength to keep people out of weakness. It’s a simple concept
Thanks James! I was one of those who blindly followed your book when I first signed up. After you went all in on Amazon, I started to pay attention to the unusual flows. Slowly building my own book, and learning. (Still picked up some of those Amazon calls in 2025). Keep up the great work. Thank you James.
Ha! You know people see the book and they don’t appreciate the time and effort it took to get to that point. After a year of writing these recaps and really dedicating myself everyday, I am a bit burned out. I realized that spending a little time away would be nice. Before I wrote my substack I would note the odd trades I’d see daily and make a few trades but when you run a service like this and it explodes in the number of users it has, I had to really outperform and doing that required so much effort of looking over the charts every night to build a gameplan and doing it day after day, on top of all the real estate development I have going on, and the kids. It’s just so much more work in retirement than even I had imagined lol but I can’t complain the substack has become huge and has become a large business of its own. I’ve done a good job because people are sticking around, but I am a bit drained that’s all
Haha thanks man believe me that’s why I’m taking some time off trading. I’m retired but the last 1 year now since I’ve really dedicated myself to logging all these tresses and writing this substack everyday. It’s been a lot more work than I was anticipating but I also never thought this was going to turn into its own big business by itself which it is now with 1500 subs
Lol no unusual whales gets the data straight from the cboe like everyone else they just built their platform that feeds it all. It’s unnecessary you know how much data there is? I filter it to what is relevant
Apologies if this is a very basic question. But when Grapestomper above says he is following the unusual flows, where does one follow these options flow? I would have assumed that one could apply filters to the data in terms of transaction size for example, or other parameters
you'd have to ask him what he meant. I don't keep up with the retail platforms. They're mostly junk to me, unusual whales is just a cheap verion of a data feed from the cboe. I don't really see the purpose of caring about $20-60k trades, those are of no relevance. I try to filter only the oddest trades by size and share those. There are millions of trades placed daily, there is no need to have access to all of them.
Thank you for all the great work! May I know how do you source the option flow data? Did you subscribe to other options data service or use a Bloomberg terminal?
I use my terminal yes. I then breakdown the data through my own parameters to seek out the most unusual activity of the day and then I break it down here in an easy to read table
Thank you for the quick response! I always want to learn technical analysis (chart looking) systematically but don’t know where to start, do you have any books/ online resource suggestions on this? Otherwise it will be great if you put all these info into a blogpost and share here with the subscribed members! I think this will be incredibly useful to many of us.
What do you want to know exactly? I’ll be honest most in here aren’t really beginners because they’re people looking for option flow more than anything and that’s not really for newbies so I’ve never really had anyone ask me for help with ta. With that said I can probably draw up something at some point when I have time but I would say something like YouTube is a valuable source vs books
Anyways my email is always open so ask questions and I’ll answer whatever you would like to know
Thanks for this post, James. I have more time now in my life so I really want to dig deeper in your unusual flow data and find the hidden gems myself. Btw maybe Safari has some spellchecker built in? I dont use Mac but maybe something like this? https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/check-spelling-and-grammar-on-mac-mchlp2299/mac Thanks again for your work and enjoy your time out :)
Thanks simon!
There is so much value in your chart reading explanations and ways to use the option data it is just nuts to me people are here to copy the book (sorry to say to all). Considering the timing aspect you will always be later than James stepping in (so different risk / reward), which although can be minor you also don’t have an exit strategy (because you wait for James if you follow him one on one) so the risk management is off from James stats. Which is crucial to being successful. And in the end: Would you rather get the fish or learn fishing?
Thanks for the update James. Keep up the good work and never forget to take care of yourself and the fam 👊
Thanks Kenny, all valid points. I think one has to understand what they’re doing and why. It’s very important because we all have different goals and timeframes. My level of risk taking might not work for others
Exactly. And if shit hits the fan, you know what to do as you will have a strategy for it. That’s where this options and put selling gets explosive as well. Hopefully a smooth ride over the summer with Amazon and Mr Jassy 🤞
Hopefully man I’d love to come back in a couple weeks and see a nice 25% gain from here in my book lol. I do think from here, those particular calls will go 200% minimum by expiration in 30 months even that would only be back at 2021 highs or so
A nice market pullback and AMZN consolidating sideways before a new breakout (and market regains trend upwards) would provide a good chance on 25%+ gain in the next 6-8weeks!
Thanks for the post. One question I have is when I look at the options data, how do you tell the direction of the bet being placed? For example, in the table listed above you listed ABNB in the “Puts Bought” column, but couldn’t that also be in the “Puts Sold” column as well? In other words, given that trades are two sided, how can you tell the direction of the bet?
When I see the trades come in, you see the full trade details on the bid/ask. Then you have to look at the open interest and see was it opening or closing and estimate. Where the trade was placed whether on the bid or ask is what tells you what the player doing.
Thanks
Is there a threshold of order value that enters your radar? Obviously, you ignore all the $10k orders here and there. What is the minimum that catches your attention?
Good job James. Good work.
Thanks John!
Thank you for doing all this work. This post finally made me a subscriber. Your substack is a refreshing alternative to all the chart stuff most of us have seen a thousand times before.
Thanks for the kind words. I have a unique process. I’ve proven it works over the past year doing this. Anyone can apply my process to their own book. I just try to point out pockets of strength to keep people out of weakness. It’s a simple concept
Thanks James! I was one of those who blindly followed your book when I first signed up. After you went all in on Amazon, I started to pay attention to the unusual flows. Slowly building my own book, and learning. (Still picked up some of those Amazon calls in 2025). Keep up the great work. Thank you James.
Ha! You know people see the book and they don’t appreciate the time and effort it took to get to that point. After a year of writing these recaps and really dedicating myself everyday, I am a bit burned out. I realized that spending a little time away would be nice. Before I wrote my substack I would note the odd trades I’d see daily and make a few trades but when you run a service like this and it explodes in the number of users it has, I had to really outperform and doing that required so much effort of looking over the charts every night to build a gameplan and doing it day after day, on top of all the real estate development I have going on, and the kids. It’s just so much more work in retirement than even I had imagined lol but I can’t complain the substack has become huge and has become a large business of its own. I’ve done a good job because people are sticking around, but I am a bit drained that’s all
Make sure you take care of yourself. I don’t want to lose this Substack or your wisdom because you burnt yourself to a crisp!
Haha thanks man believe me that’s why I’m taking some time off trading. I’m retired but the last 1 year now since I’ve really dedicated myself to logging all these tresses and writing this substack everyday. It’s been a lot more work than I was anticipating but I also never thought this was going to turn into its own big business by itself which it is now with 1500 subs
Can I ask where you are obtain the options flow data? Is this from unusual whales for example?
Lol no unusual whales gets the data straight from the cboe like everyone else they just built their platform that feeds it all. It’s unnecessary you know how much data there is? I filter it to what is relevant
Apologies if this is a very basic question. But when Grapestomper above says he is following the unusual flows, where does one follow these options flow? I would have assumed that one could apply filters to the data in terms of transaction size for example, or other parameters
you'd have to ask him what he meant. I don't keep up with the retail platforms. They're mostly junk to me, unusual whales is just a cheap verion of a data feed from the cboe. I don't really see the purpose of caring about $20-60k trades, those are of no relevance. I try to filter only the oddest trades by size and share those. There are millions of trades placed daily, there is no need to have access to all of them.
Your candor is the first of its kind for me in this business. Great work, and thanks for letting us in
Thanks jon have a great day!