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 tracks those orders exclusively.
The four screening qualifications
To appear on this list, an options print must simultaneously satisfy four strict criteria.
Strategic rationale behind the filters
Filter
Why it's there
Floor-executed only
Separates manual institutional execution from algorithmic and retail flow. What's left is high-touch block business worked by hand.
$250,000 minimum
Screens out small incidental prints. Every trade on this page represents a real commitment of capital, not a rounding error.
Single-leg only
Multi-leg strategies like spreads and straddles muddy the read. Pulling one leg out of a spread and calling it directional is misleading, since the other leg often points the opposite way. Single-leg trades are outright bets, so the direction is unambiguous.
7-day rolling window
Long enough to capture a full trading week of institutional positioning, short enough to stay current.
Zero configuration required
Unlike other tools with complex parameter panels, this page features no adjustable filters. Every trade on the board has already cleared all four institutional thresholds.
Institutional Significance
An order gets routed to a physical trading floor when electronic execution isn't up to the job, usually because the trade is too large or too complex for an algorithm to work cleanly. Institutional desks use floor brokers to negotiate big blocks quietly, keeping slippage and market impact down.
Why floor execution filters for institutional flow
Size alone won't get you there. Plenty of large electronic trades are routine market-maker rebalancing or automated flow, not a conviction bet by anyone.
What the data shows, and what it doesn't
You knowThe exact strike and expiration the desk chose.
You don'tWhy they chose it. A new directional bet, a hedge against stock they already own, and a close of an existing position all look identical on this page.
You knowThe total premium committed, always at least $250,000.
You don'tEverything else in the portfolio. The same institution may hold stock, futures, or OTC derivatives you'll never see.
You knowThe aggressor side, meaning whether the buyer or the seller paid up to get filled.
You don'tWho took the other side, and what their reason was.
How to use it
Treat every floor print as a piece of market evidence, not a trade recommendation. It tells you where large capital went, not what it was thinking.
Determining Directional Lean
The Lean column provides the primary directional classification on the list, 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.
How lean is calculated
Every options contract has a bid and an ask sitting in the market. The bid is what buyers are willing to pay. The ask is what sellers are asking for. Whoever crosses that spread to get filled right now is the aggressor, and the aggressor is the one showing urgency.
Buying on the ask. Someone wanted exposure badly enough to pay up rather than wait for a better fill.
Selling on the bid. Someone wanted out, or wanted to write contracts, badly enough to accept the lower price.
Lean is built entirely from which side did the paying. It's an inference about urgency, not a statement of intent.
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.
Reading the Board
What each column tells you
Column
What it shows
What to take from it
Time (ET)
The execution timestamp. Current-session prints show in orange. Older ones show a full date across the 7-day window.
Tells you exactly when institutional flow hit the market.
Ticker and tags
The symbol, with a SWEEP badge when it applies.
SWEEP means the order was split across multiple exchanges to get filled immediately. That's a sign of urgency.
Call / Put
Contract type.
On its own it says nothing directional. You need to pair it with Lean. A bought put and a sold put point opposite ways.
Strike and expiration
The strike price and expiration date.
Shows where the desk is putting its price target, and how long it's giving the trade to work.
Lean
Bullish or bearish.
Inferred from which side crossed the spread to get filled, not from stated intent.
Premium ($)
Total dollars exchanged, always at least $250,000.
The best single read on conviction. It's what the desk actually risked.
Size
Number of contracts in the block.
Raw contract count, nothing more.
Vol / OI
Today's volume divided by existing open interest.
Above 1.0x suggests a brand new position rather than a close.
Why Vol / OI matters more than it looks
Open interest is the number of contracts that were already outstanding before today's session opened. Volume is how many changed hands today.
Vol / OI = today's contracts traded ÷ open interest going in
Below 1.0x, the trade could easily be someone closing or rolling a position they already had. You can't tell.
Above 1.0x, more contracts traded in that single block than existed in the entire open interest beforehand. That's hard to explain as a close. It points to fresh money establishing something new. Those prints get highlighted on the board.
Premium versus size
Sorting by Size gives you a very different board than sorting by Premium, and the gap is worth understanding.
Big size, small premium. Cheap out-of-the-money or short-dated contracts pile up enormous contract counts for very little money. Ten thousand contracts at five cents is fifty thousand dollars. It looks impressive in the Size column and isn't.
Small size, big premium. Deep in-the-money contracts or long-dated LEAPS can run into millions of dollars across a few hundred contracts.
Premium is the measure that holds up. It's the capital actually at risk. Size just tells you how the position was packaged.
Tool Glossary
The Basics
Floor trade
An options order negotiated by hand by a broker on a physical exchange floor, rather than matched electronically.
Premium
The total cash the trade was worth. Contract price times size times 100.
Size
The number of contracts in the print.
Single-leg trade
One outright option bought or sold on its own, with no second leg attached.
Reading a Print
Lean
The direction the tool assigns a print, based on which side crossed the spread to get filled.
Bid and ask
The best price a buyer is willing to pay, and the best price a seller is willing to take, at the moment of execution.
Vol / OI
The print's volume divided by the open interest already outstanding on that contract.
Open interest
The number of contracts on that strike and expiration currently open, meaning bought or sold and not yet closed or expired.