Screening Filters
Market Cap ≥ $20B
Purpose: Focus on large, established companies.
Rationale: Large-cap stocks typically have:
- Deep and active options chains
- Tighter bid–ask spreads in options
- More consistent institutional participation
For “top options stocks,” you usually want the most liquid, widely traded underlyings, which are overwhelmingly in the large‑cap universe.
Price Between $20 and $300
Monthly Average Dollar Volume ≥ $10M
- Purpose: Ensure the underlying stock is highly liquid.
- Rationale:
- High dollar volume in the stock tends to correlate with liquid options chains.
- Better liquidity usually means:
- Tighter option bid–ask spreads
- Easier entries and exits
- Less slippage
Region: United States
- Purpose: Restrict to U.S.-listed companies.
- Rationale:
- The U.S. has the deepest, most developed listed options markets.
- U.S. underlyings on major U.S. exchanges typically have:
- Standardized option contracts
- Reliable options volume and open interest
Exchanges: NYSE (XNYS), NASDAQ (XNAS), AMEX (XASE)
- Purpose: Limit to primary U.S. exchanges with active options listing.
- Rationale:
- These exchanges host the majority of heavily traded, optionable stocks.
- It avoids OTC or obscure venues where options may be absent or illiquid.
is_optionable = True
- Purpose: Include only stocks that actually have listed options.
- Rationale:
- This is the core requirement for “options stocks.”
- It filters out all names that do not have an options market, so every result is a valid options underlying.
Option IV Rank ≥ 20
- Purpose: Focus on stocks whose options currently have at least moderately elevated implied volatility relative to their own past.
- Rationale:
- IV Rank measures where today’s implied volatility stands versus the past year (for example).
- An IV Rank of 20+ avoids names with extremely low implied volatility, where options may be:
- Very cheap but less attractive for premium-selling strategies
- Reflecting very low expected movement
- “Top options stocks” are often those with enough implied movement to make options pricing and strategies worthwhile.
Why Results Match “Top Options Stocks”
- The screen zeroes in on large, well-known U.S. companies with high trading liquidity, which are the typical underlyings used by serious options traders.
- Every stock returned is explicitly optionable, and the IV Rank filter ensures the options are not “dead” (ultra-low volatility), making them more relevant for active options strategies (buying or selling premium).
- The price and liquidity filters improve tradability by helping ensure tighter spreads and more efficient executions, which are critical when you’re trading options rather than just the underlying stock.
This list is generated based on data from one or more third party data providers. It is provided for informational purposes only by Intellectia.AI, and is not investment advice or a recommendation. Intellectia does not make any warranty or guarantee relating to the accuracy, timeliness or completeness of any third-party information, and the provision of this information does not constitute a recommendation.