Getting started
Create an account, find your way around the dashboard, run your first screen and understand what the numbers mean.
Overview
OptionsScreenerPro ranks listed US stocks and option contracts by the things that move markets: option volume, open interest, implied volatility, approximate option money flow and spread opportunities. This guide gets you from sign-up to your first saved screen in about ten minutes.
Before you start
You need an email address or a Google account. No card is needed for the Free plan.
Steps
1. Create an account
- Open the Register page and sign up with your email address or with Google.
- Confirm your email address from the message we send you. Until it is confirmed you can sign in, but some actions (alerts, exports) stay locked.
- Every new account starts on the Free plan. See Account and billing for what each plan includes.
- A new account opens the Welcome page: three good first steps (the Unusual volume report, the metric glossary and your first alert) and a setup checklist. The checklist is worked out from what you have actually done - verify your email, run a screen, save a screen, add symbols to a watchlist, set an alert, choose your plan - so it ticks a step off by itself as soon as you do it anywhere in the app. Linking Telegram or browser notifications is optional. A step your plan does not include shows a lock and a See plans link instead.
- Until the checklist is complete, a short version sits on the dashboard. Hide it with the x; the full list stays on /welcome.
2. Look at the dashboard
After signing in you land on the Dashboard. It shows the day's leaders in a few compact tables:
- Most active options: contracts with the highest session volume.
- High open interest: contracts with the largest number of open positions.
- High implied volatility: contracts the market is pricing for the biggest moves.
- Money flow leaders: symbols with the largest approximate dollars traded through options.
- Surges: contracts whose volume, open interest or implied volatility jumped versus the previous snapshot.
Every column header has an (i): hover it (or tap it on a phone) for the definition, the formula and the caveats, then Read more for the full entry in the Metric glossary.
Every table carries a data freshness badge that names the source provider, the declared delay and the "as of" time in US Eastern time. Read Understanding data freshness before you act on any number.
3. Run a screen
- Go to Screeners → Options (or Screeners → Stocks).
- Type one or more symbols, or leave the symbol box empty to scan the whole covered universe.
- Add filters, for example volume at least 1,000, open interest at least 500, expiration within 45 days, implied volatility at least 60 %.
- Press Run. Results are sortable; click a column header to sort, and use the column chooser to show Greeks, break-even or moneyness.
The Options screener and Stock screener articles describe every filter.
4. Save and reuse
- Save screen keeps the filters so you can rerun them later with one click. See Saved screens.
- Add to watchlist keeps a symbol close at hand across every screen and report. See Watchlists.
- Research → Alerts notifies you when a stock or contract crosses a threshold you set. See Alerts.
5. Get help on any page
The ? button at the top of every page opens Help for this page: the guides written for the page you are on (on a report, its own article first), a search box that understands trading shorthand (IV, IVR, OI, PCR, UOA, DTE, 0DTE, the Greeks) and Contact support. Searching never sends the symbol, filters or names on your screen - only the kind of page you are on. If nothing matches, the search is noted so we can write the missing article.
6. Explore the report library
The Reports page contains ready-made screens that reproduce the report families of the original Options Screener: open interest, volume, implied volatility, surge, money flow, spreads and gap reports. Reports explained describes each one in plain English.
Example
A first screen many people start with: Screeners → Options, symbol box empty, volume / open interest at least 2 and days to expiry at most 30. It lists short-dated contracts where today's volume is at least twice the existing open interest.
FAQs
Is the data real time?
No. Market data is delayed (or end of day) and every view says so. See Understanding data freshness.
Are there keyboard shortcuts?
Press / on any list page to focus the search box, and Esc to close dialogs.
Troubleshooting
I did not receive the confirmation email
Check your spam folder, then sign in and ask for the email again from the banner. Messages come from the platform's own sending domain.
The welcome checklist does not tick a step off
It updates a few seconds after the action; reload the page if it still shows the step open. A step only counts when it really happened (for example an alert that was created, not just opened).
A screen returns no rows
Remove filters one at a time: a combination of narrow filters often excludes everything. Outside market hours the latest snapshot is the previous session's.