I subscribe to QCharts, and version 5.x had intraday options charting that unfortunately went away with QCharts 6.x. Does anyone offer intraday options charts?
Thanks! I do trade through IB, but hadn't bothered to check out their charts since I've been using QCharts.
think or swim does offer it... but as u are aware.. for options. many charts are all whacked up. due to high volatility.
I tried to chart option strikes in TOS, but the print is random and has huge gaps in it. (I enter the option or "OPRA" code into the chart. For example RUT September 660 calls would be ".RUT100918C660") I got in contact with the charts experts and he told me to just follow the underlying price. That's all I need to trade the option - can you believe that? I also tried using the Active Trader (DOM price ladder) so I could do one click buys but it looks terrible and they really discourage you from using it for that. Can Tradestation, Neoticker, or ? provide streaming option prices as well as a DOM for one-click buys and sells? It would also be nice to be able to overlay the option and the underlying price together to look for divergence. Is there a better way to do this or am I chasing windmills?
TS, NeoTicker and even IB have capabilities of plotting multiple symbols thus underlying and option price combinations. GC
What did you expect from an option chart!? Options do not trade frequently so you get charts that are random with huge gaps. You can plot mutliple tickers in thinkorswim. However, looking at the divergence between the underlying and an option is not very useful since the option's price is also affected by the changes in volatility and time. In addition, as I have mentioned above, not all options are traded frequently enough for the chart to be meaningful or for them to reflect the actual activity in the option's price. You can also turn on "theoretical price" in the chart settings to display the theoretical price, which is not random and doesn't have huge gaps in it. Or use the Prophet charts tab to overlay bid/ask.
A lot of this is caused by being new to options charting I'm sure. I expected to see the same price movement that displays in the Active Trader - plotted on the chart. Or even the rapid changes in the options chain/ladder screen showing up. I understand that some options are traded very infrequently, but there are some that do. I have been day trading options on indexes and they seem to have a pretty healthy volume. I had some amazing luck at scalping on the options (as opposed to the futures.) The price fluctuations seemed more gradual. (trades last from 30 seconds to 5 minutes) But I began noticing that the options prices sometimes moved ahead of the index and vice-versa and thought I could get a better jump on the divergence. Something like pair trading - except I'm only buying the options side. Thanks for the input I will take another look at the Prophet charts. I have already tried the theoretical price option.
I got the options overlay to work in the Prophet charts. I'm still digesting what I'm looking at to figure out if this will help me or not. Attached is a screen print with for IWM 65 Calls. I had to change the chart type to "line" otherwise the option price disappears. The red line is moving average, and there is a Bollinger band in blue. I'm trying to figure out if this confirms my theory that the option price does not swing as much as the underlying price and therefore is better for scalping trades on indexes? I am having much better P/L using the options than by trading the underlying. BTW - the strategy is to buy Calls or Puts based on the price movement. I look for price reversals and use FisherTransform, ChandeMomentum Oscillator, MACD as well as some MA's on the upper screen.