The Barchart platform is rich with tools and information for investors who want to gain a share in the market. And that’s regardless of whether your focus is specific to stocks, options or both.
A great feature is the ability to easily screen large institutional options activity or individual traders for mass and powerful action buying and selling calls.
The powerful tools in Barchart even allow users to track options spreads, with just one module of discovery work.
For option traders, this type of information provides a solid understanding of what the market’s largest derivatives players are doing, and may be worth tracking in our own trading accounts.
To keep a pulse on the US options market and whose company shares are part of the Nasdaq-100 ($IUXX), I start with a basic stock screener.
that’s right. My search begins with a barchart screening tool for stocks, not options.
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The first order of business in this stock “options” screener is placing individual filter criteria.
Shown above, there are a total of nine entries starting with “Watch List” at the top and “3-Month Average Options Volume %Chg” at the bottom.
In order to provide a clear and unbiased picture of what is going on, almost all of these parameters are entered without any filter values.
From the watch list criteria, and as this unusual options performance scan is only for Nasdaq-100 stocks, this indicator is clicked for confirmation.
The only other item that has ticked is the 52-week average option activity.
As an options trader I like to stay at arm’s length from a stock, even if it is a large-cap Nasdaq-100 company whose calls and puts are generally not active.
For options markets that are trading below average, as a general rule, it is best to avoid getting involved or otherwise risk an unacceptable and costly slippage.
To avoid this situation I set a baseline of 5,000 contracts. This is a predictable equation. But this level of daily options functionality does an adequate job of weeding out weeds while offering plenty of unusual transitions for further investigation.
Today this simple but effective scan has helped to spread a few interesting options with extraordinary performance in Electronic Arts (EA) and Marvell Technologies (MRVL).
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The video game giant Electronic Arts took the top spot in our screener after changing the “3M Vol % Chg criteria”.
Volume in EA options rose more than 1,600% above average on Friday with more than 52,500 contracts traded.
What quickly becomes apparent is the storage function. A highly inconsistent “P/C Vol” ratio of 46.71 indicates that for every one year the stock is traded, approximately 47 change hands.
It’s interesting, but the devil is in the details as the saying goes.
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The next layer of analysis shown above uses the Barchart Abnormal Options Activity Sheet for EA Stocks.
As I highlighted, it appears that an exceptionally large butterfly spread of over 11,500 contracts is behind the session’s extraordinary volume.
This is certainly very interesting for publishing traders. But there is an extra step to see more important details.
By navigating to the Barchart Options Flow page for EA stock options, then filtering for the April contract for the butterfly, users can review key details such as the number of trades involved and the price spread.
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On the flow page, I highlighted one of the major butterfly transitions. At 10:13:08 ET, the 5,000-contract April 155-175-195 put spread rose to $4.01.
For this spread buyer, the maximum payout of $15.99 at the $175 put center strike is approximately 12% below EA stock’s Friday closing price of $198.
Some may consider buying this butterfly too speculative. This is especially true given that Electronic Arts has reached a definitive agreement with private equity, including Jared Kushner’s Infinite Partners, for $210 per share in cash.
The EA deal is expected to close in mid-2026.
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For more technically minded traders, there is a weekly price chart of EA stock.
The weekly outlook for Electronic Arts shares shows a bullish-looking Bollinger Bands pressure in conjunction with the stochastic, forming a bearish crossover into overbought territory a short time ago.
Regardless of any additional information about the stock EA, the technical picture looks set to resolve the pressure with a bearish move to the downside.
A buyer or seller of a butterfly spread may also have another horse up their sleeve.
Despite EA’s definitive voice deal, there’s still potential and serious fine print to pull it off.
Most importantly, the use of electronic art is made up of consortia. The group also includes Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).
With EA’s massive 700 million accounts and user data a key point of sale, lawmakers are warning of national security risks still waiting in the “wings” ahead of an in-depth review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). So, now how is the risk for reward in the long butterfly view?
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A major and potential editorial player looks very bullish on Marvel stock.
To be fair, this party is not entirely alone.
Apart from an apparent gain of 18.35% stake in MRVL following the semiconductor company’s earnings beat and strong outlook on Friday, options traders remained net positive in the immediate aftermath of the event.
The Nasdaq-100 screener earlier showed that MRVL options were over 625,000 contracts and 700% higher than the 3-month average.
The heavy performance was enough to place the name in second place behind EA’s exceptionally active session.
Also, other investors in Marvell stock continued to gravitate to call contracts by a margin of about two to one.
At the same time, positive “Net Business Sentiment” and “Delta Imbalance” confirmed the high position.
But it was during lunch that a seemingly fast spread trade ended that caught my eye when I dug into the barchart options flow data for MRVL.
This was not the largest trade in terms of contract size, although the 2,500 x 5,000 contracts are significant.
Where it was highly traded was its transfer value.
The September 80 put 5,000 contracts at $8.78 totaled $4,390,000.
Meanwhile, 2,500 September 95 contracts at $14.44 each add $3,610,000.
If the put options are actually sold and the calls are bought, the $3.12 credit results in a strong put leverage ratio spread.
Credit math is simple. Multiply the put premium by two ($8.78 x 2 = $17.56) because the number of contracts sold is twice the number of call contracts purchased. Then subtract the year’s debit from the gross debit ($17.56 – $14.44) to arrive at the net credit.
This credit is held in full at expiration if MRVL shares remain above $80.
Below the $76.88 breakeven, unadjusted losses could turn ugly in the blink of an eye with this trader short 5,000 puts, ie, long 500,000 MRVL stock.
However, if the stock rises above $95, this large credit, which maintains a nice downside cushion of 14% today (MRVL Stock @ $89.57 – B/E $76.88 / $89.57) could look significant.
The upside, if MRVL share prices match the best days or best days of 2025, it will be a really big payoff paid by short puts for 2,500 long years.
And with a monthly chart showing a very good timing of the newly minted bullish RSI crossover in Marvel’s extended channel pattern, this could truly be an “exciting” bullish dominance ratio.
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There are a ton of performance options. But by taking advantage of barchart scanning tools and a little bit of work, investors can gain powerful insights, be introduced to new position ideas that make sense and even pursue big money in your own account as a top money trader.
As of the date of publication, Chris Taylor had no positions (either directly or indirectly) in the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is for informational purposes only. This article was originally published on Barchart.com
