While the vast majority of options orders are matched electronically in milliseconds, a select tier of large institutional orders is still negotiated manually by floor brokers operating on physical exchange floors. This page provides a dedicated, real-time tape tracking exclusively floor-executed institutional orders.
The four screening qualifications
To appear on this tape, an options print must simultaneously satisfy four strict criteria.
Everything on the page has cleared all four. One recent week left 111 trades worth $127.85M between them.
A typical 7-day rolling window captures roughly 100 to 120 high-conviction institutional trades, totaling over $100M in aggregate cash flow. The week shown above left 111 trades worth $127.85M.
Strategic rationale behind the filters
Filter condition
Rationale and institutional purpose
Floor-executed
Isolates manual institutional execution from algorithmic retail flow, capturing high-touch block trades worked by floor brokers.
$250,000 minimum
Filters out small, incidental prints, ensuring every print represents a major, intentional commitment of capital.
Single-leg only
Eliminates directional ambiguity: in multi-leg complex strategies (e.g., spreads or straddles), isolating a single short or long leg gives a misleading directional signal. Omitting multi-leg trades ensures every print reflects an outright directional bet.
7-day rolling window
Retains recent market context long enough to track institutional positioning across an entire trading week.
Zero configuration required
Unlike other tools with complex parameter panels, this tape features no adjustable filters. Every trade on the board has already cleared all four institutional thresholds.
An options order is routed to a physical trading floor when electronic execution algorithms are insufficient for the trade's size or complexity. Institutional desks utilize floor brokers to negotiate large block trades quietly, minimizing price slippage and market impact.
Why floor trades filter for institutional flow
A standard size threshold alone cannot isolate true institutional intent, because many large electronic trades are routine market-maker rebalancing or automated algorithmic flow.
Both paths end in a real trade, but only the lower one is worked by hand. A size filter alone would let the electronic flow through; screening for floor execution is what isolates the deliberate, human-negotiated block trades.
High-touch execution: routing an order to a human broker requires deliberate institutional workflow. Retail traders and small funds do not route 10-contract orders to exchange floors.
Pure institutional isolation: this tape is the only interface on the platform that filters specifically for human-negotiated block transactions.
Information derived vs. hidden data
While a floor print confirms that major capital executed at a specific strike and expiration, interpreting the trade requires recognizing what the raw data does and does not reveal.
What the data confirms (facts)
What the data hides (unknowns)
The exact strike and expiration chosen by the institutional desk.
Strategic intent: whether the trade represents a new directional bet, a hedge against equity holdings, or a profit-taking close.
The total premium committed (always at least $250,000).
Broader portfolio context: unseen positions in underlying stock, futures, or OTC derivatives held by the same institution.
The aggressor side: whether the buyer or seller paid the bid/ask spread.
Counterparty identity: the opposing institutional entity taking the other side of the trade.
Institutional perspective
Treat every floor print as a piece of market evidence, not a trade recommendation. Serious institutional capital stood on both sides of every transaction on this board.
Chapter 3
Determining Directional Lean
The Lean column provides the primary directional classification on the tape, but it is frequently misunderstood. A trade's lean is not determined by whether the contract is a call or a put; it is derived from which side of the bid-ask spread initiated the transaction.
The execution matrix: how lean is calculated
Every options contract trades with an active bid (the seller's price) and ask (the buyer's price). The party that crosses the spread to execute immediately is the aggressor.
Buying on the ask: indicates an aggressive buyer seeking immediate exposure.
Selling on the bid: indicates an aggressive seller seeking to write or unload contracts.
Buying is a bet the option gains, selling is a bet it does not. So a call bought reads bullish and a call sold reads bearish, and puts read the opposite way round.
Why contract name alone is misleading
Relying strictly on whether a trade is a call or a put leads to inaccurate market signals.
Calls can be bearish: selling a call on the bid is a bet that the asset will not rally.
Puts can be bullish: selling a put on the bid is a bet that the asset will not fall, collecting premium while agreeing to buy shares if assigned.
Sample window reality check. Out of 61 call prints captured over a recent week, 32 read bearish (sold on the bid). Out of 50 put prints, 30 read bullish (sold on the bid). Anyone scanning the Call/Put column in isolation would have misread market direction more than half the time.
Real-world case studies
Bearish call sale, GOOGL $390 call ($290,000 premium / 2,500 contracts): every dollar of premium executed directly on the bid. Institutional capital aggressively sold these calls to collect premium, creating a bearish classification.
Bullish put sale, CRWV $70 put ($600,000 premium / 500 contracts): executed entirely on the bid. Capital actively sold put contracts, establishing a position that profits if the underlying asset holds its ground or rises, creating a bullish classification.
Handling split-fill orders and fine margins
When a massive institutional block order executes across multiple price levels, premium can land on both sides of the spread. The system assigns a binary bullish or bearish label based on whichever side claims the majority of cash flow, regardless of how close the split may be.
Case study, Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) $370 put ($40.5M block):
$20.29M executed on the ask (bearish put buying).
$20.25M executed on the bid (bullish put selling).
Although the two sides were separated by less than a tenth of one percent, the tape displayed a plain bearish label. On megacap prints, always remember that binary labels can rest on razor-thin execution margins.
Chapter 4
Reading the Tape & Key Data Columns
The floor tape features nine sortable data columns. Clicking any column header sorts the board in natural order; clicking a second time reverses it.
Field reference guide
Column
Data displayed
Key analytical insight
Time (ET)
Execution timestamp. Current-session prints appear in orange; older prints display full dates across the 7-day window.
Pinpoints the exact time of day institutional flow entered the market.
Ticker & tags
Symbol, accompanied by a SWEEP badge when applicable.
A SWEEP tag indicates an inter-market sweep order split across multiple exchanges to execute immediately.
Call / Put
Contract type (call or put).
Identifies the option structure (must be paired with Lean for directional context).
Strike & expiration
Target strike price and expiration date.
Identifies where the institution is placing its price target and time horizon.
Lean
Bullish or bearish classification.
Derived from aggressor-side execution cash flow (ask vs. bid).
Premium ($)
Total dollar volume exchanged (at least $250,000).
Primary conviction metric: measures total capital committed.
Size
Total contract volume in the block.
Raw number of option contracts exchanged.
Vol / OI ratio
Daily contract volume divided by existing open interest.
New-money indicator: values above 1.0x highlight aggressive position creation.
Why Vol / OI is the most critical metric
Open interest (OI) represents the total number of outstanding, active contracts that existed before the session opened. Volume (Vol) tracks contracts traded during the current session.
Vol / OI ratio = today's contracts traded ÷ pre-existing active contracts (open interest)
Vol / OI below 1.0x: the trade could easily represent the closing or rolling of pre-existing positions.
Vol / OI above 1.0x (highlighted): more contracts traded in a single block than existed in total open interest prior to today. This provides strong statistical evidence that the institution established a brand-new position rather than closing an old one.
Tape Statistics
Over a sample week of 111 floor trades, 49 prints cleared the 1.0x Vol/OI threshold, highlighting significant fresh institutional positioning.
Capital conviction: premium vs. size
Sorting the board by Size (contract count) yields a completely different view than sorting by Premium (dollar value).
High size / low premium: out-of-the-money or short-dated contracts can post massive contract counts (e.g., 10,000 contracts at $0.05 = $50,000) for relatively small capital outlays.
Low size / high premium: deep in-the-money or long-dated LEAPS contracts can represent millions of dollars across just a few hundred contracts.
Core metric principle
Premium is the true measure of institutional conviction. Always prioritize total dollar volume over raw contract size when evaluating institutional risk commitment.
Chapter 5
Summary Cards & Aggregated Flow Metrics
Positioned directly above the live tape, four real-time summary cards aggregate the trailing 7-day dataset into actionable institutional metrics.
The summary card dashboard
Dataset snapshot: 111 total trades, $127.85M total premium. Measured 22 July 2026.
Summary card
Value
How it is calculated
Analytical meaning
Floor Trades
111 trades
Total count of individual block prints clearing all four entry criteria over 7 days.
Measures overall institutional activity volume.
Total Premium
$127.85M (calls $44.19M / puts $83.66M)
Total dollar volume, split strictly by contract type (calls vs. puts).
Tracks total cash allocation by raw contract type.
Flow Lean
34% bullish (66% bearish)
Percentage of total premium where execution occurred on the aggressor side (ask vs. bid).
True capital sentiment: measures net directional bias based on buyer/seller aggressiveness.
Most Active
CDNS ($41.50M)
Ticker symbol attracting the largest aggregate dollar premium over the trailing 7 days.
Isolates top single-stock institutional capital concentration.
Distinguishing total premium split vs. flow lean
While the Total Premium call/put split and the Flow Lean percentage may appear similar at first glance, they measure fundamentally different dimensions of order flow.
Both cards describe the same $127.85M. The left one splits it by whether each contract was a call or a put; the right one splits it by whether the money paid the ask or hit the bid. The same block can count as a call on the left and as bearish on the right.
Total Premium card (contract type): classifies cash flow based strictly on the label of the option (call vs. put).
Flow Lean card (aggressor side): classifies cash flow based on whether capital paid the ask or hit the bid.
Why the distinction matters
If an institution aggressively sells $10M of calls on the bid, that trade adds $10M to the call total on the Total Premium card, but registers as bearish flow on the Flow Lean card.
Inspecting "Most Active" concentration risk
A single ticker dominating the Most Active card does not automatically imply broad, continuous institutional trading throughout the week.
Case Study: Cadence Design Systems (CDNS)
CDNS topped the board with $41.50M in total weekly premium. However, inspecting the tape reveals that $40.54M was generated by a single block order.
CDNS led the Most Active card with $41.50M for the week, but a single block order accounted for $40.54M of it. Take that one print out and the rest of the week's CDNS floor flow is $0.96M. That is why the card is worth cross-checking against the tape.
Always cross-reference the Most Active card by sorting the tape by Premium to verify whether a ticker's placement reflects sustained multi-day interest or an isolated mega-block print.
Auto-Refresh Functionality
All summary cards update dynamically alongside the tape during market hours, maintaining accurate aggregate figures without requiring manual browser refreshes.