Options Screener: How to Find the Best Trades

What is an Options Screener?

An options screener is a tool that systematically filters the options market based on criteria you define. There are roughly 5,000 optionable stocks and ETFs in the US market, each with dozens of expirations and hundreds of strikes. Manually reviewing even a fraction of this universe is impossible. A screener scans everything in seconds and returns only the setups that match your parameters.

Think of it like a search engine for options trades. Instead of Googling "best options trades today" (which is useless), you define exactly what a good trade looks like: IV Rank above 50%, option volume above 500 contracts per day, bid-ask spread under $0.10, no earnings within 14 days. The screener returns 20 tickers that match. You then analyze those 20 manually and select the best 3-5 to trade.

Try the ApexVol options screener to run these filters yourself. Without a screener, most traders fall into the familiarity trap — trading the same 5-10 tickers (AAPL, TSLA, SPY, AMZN, NVDA) regardless of whether those tickers currently offer good setups. With a screener, you discover that the best premium-selling opportunity today might be in a stock you have never traded, like CMG at IV Rank 82 or FDX at IV Rank 71.

Key Screening Filters Explained

Not all filters are equal. Here are the ones that matter most, ranked by importance for finding high-quality options trades:

1. IV Rank (Most Important)

IV Rank tells you where current implied volatility sits relative to the past year's range. An IV Rank of 80% means current IV is higher than 80% of the readings over the past 12 months. This is the single most important filter for options traders because it determines whether premium is rich or cheap.

For premium sellers: Screen for IV Rank above 50% (ideally 60-80%). When IV is elevated, options are expensive and you collect more premium. Example: NFLX at IV Rank 72 means its options are in the top 28% of their 52-week range — premium is juicy for iron condors or credit spreads.

For premium buyers: Screen for IV Rank below 20%. When IV is historically low, options are cheap. Buying straddles or debit spreads at low IV means you benefit if volatility expands. Example: MSFT at IV Rank 8 means its options are near their cheapest in a year — a good time to buy calls or puts.

2. Option Volume & Open Interest

Volume is the number of contracts traded today. Open interest is the total number of outstanding contracts. Both measure liquidity, and liquidity determines execution quality. Illiquid options have wide bid-ask spreads, meaning you lose money the instant you enter the trade.

Minimum thresholds: For individual stocks, look for at least 500 contracts average daily volume. For ETFs, look for 5,000+. High open interest at your target strike (1,000+ contracts) ensures you can exit the trade without moving the market.

Example of a liquidity problem: A biotech stock shows IV Rank of 90% — looks great for selling premium. But daily option volume is 47 contracts and the bid-ask spread on the 30-delta put is $0.40 wide on a $1.80 option. You lose 22% of the option's value to slippage on entry alone. The screener should filter this out.

3. Bid-Ask Spread Width

The bid-ask spread is the hidden cost of every options trade. A tight spread ($0.01-$0.05) means you can enter and exit at fair value. A wide spread ($0.20-$0.50) means you are paying a tax on every trade.

Rule of thumb: The bid-ask spread should be less than 10% of the option's midpoint price. A $2.00 option should have a spread under $0.20. If the spread is wider, the option is too illiquid for most retail traders.

4. Delta (Directional Exposure)

Delta measures how much the option price changes per $1 move in the underlying. It also approximates the probability that the option expires in-the-money. Filtering by delta helps you find options at your desired risk level:

• 0.30-0.40 delta: Moderate probability ITM, good for debit spreads and single-leg directional trades
• 0.15-0.20 delta: Low probability ITM (~80-85% chance of expiring worthless), ideal for selling credit spreads and iron condors
• 0.05-0.10 delta: Far OTM, cheap protection or speculative bets on large moves

5. Days to Earnings

Earnings announcements cause sudden IV spikes (before) and IV crush (after). Unless you are specifically trading earnings, you want to filter them out. Set a filter for "no earnings within expiration window" or "earnings more than 14 days away" to avoid unexpected IV events that can wreck a premium-selling position.

Conversely, if you are looking for IV crush plays (selling straddles or iron condors into earnings), screen specifically for tickers with earnings in the next 7 days and IV Rank above 70%.

6. Market Cap & Sector

Small-cap stocks (under $2B market cap) often have illiquid options, erratic pricing, and susceptibility to manipulation. Filtering for market cap above $5B eliminates most problematic names. Sector filters help you avoid concentration — if you already have three tech trades on, screen for non-tech setups to diversify.

How to Screen for Income Strategies

Income strategies (covered calls, cash-secured puts, credit spreads, iron condors) profit from time decay and IV contraction. Here is a proven screening workflow:

Step 1: IV Rank Filter

Set IV Rank minimum to 50%. This ensures you are selling premium when it is rich relative to history. Selling a 30-delta put at IV Rank 70 collects 20-40% more premium than the same trade at IV Rank 30. Over hundreds of trades, this edge compounds significantly.

Step 2: Liquidity Filter

Require average daily option volume above 500 contracts and bid-ask spread under 10% of midpoint. This eliminates illiquid names where slippage eats your edge.

Step 3: Earnings Filter

Exclude tickers with earnings within the expiration window. Earnings create binary risk that can overwhelm the statistical edge of premium selling. You want boring, predictable theta decay — not a coin flip on an earnings report.

Step 4: Review the Results

A typical scan with these filters returns 15-30 names. From here, apply discretionary analysis: check the chart for obvious technical levels (don't sell puts just above support that is about to break), verify the IV spike has a real catalyst, and size the trade appropriately (1-3% of portfolio per position).

Example result set: Your screener returns CMG (IV Rank 78, volume 2,400), TGT (IV Rank 65, volume 3,800), and COST (IV Rank 61, volume 5,200). All are liquid, high-cap stocks with elevated IV and no imminent earnings. You select TGT because its chart shows clear support at $140 and you can sell the $135 put for $1.50 with 30 DTE — a trade that profits 85% of the time based on delta.

How to Screen for Directional Trades

Directional trades (long calls, long puts, debit spreads) require a different screening approach because you want to buy cheap premium rather than sell expensive premium:

Low IV Environment Screens

Screen for IV Rank below 20%. When volatility is historically low, options are cheap. Buying debit spreads or long options at low IV means you pay less for the same directional exposure, and you benefit if IV expands (which it often does from low levels).

Example: MSFT at IV Rank 8 with 30-day IV at 18%. The ATM 30-day call costs $4.50. If IV Rank were at 60 (IV around 28%), that same call would cost $7.00. Buying at low IV saves $2.50 per contract — a 36% discount for the same directional bet.

Momentum + Low IV Screens

Combine IV Rank below 30% with a momentum filter (stock up 5%+ in the last 20 days). This finds stocks that are trending but whose options have not yet priced in continued movement. The cheap IV gives you leverage; the momentum gives you direction.

Earnings Momentum Screens

Screen for stocks that beat earnings by more than 10% in the last quarter and are within 14 days of the next earnings. These tickers have a history of positive surprises, and you can buy calls or call spreads to position for another beat. The IV will be elevated (earnings premium), so use debit spreads rather than naked long calls to mitigate IV crush risk.

Common Screening Mistakes

Types of Options Screens

Different trading objectives require different screen configurations. Here are the most common screen types:

The ApexVol Screener Advantage

ApexVol's Options Screener is purpose-built for volatility-focused traders. Here is what sets it apart:

9 Pre-Built Screen Types

Instead of building filters from scratch, choose from curated screen types designed for specific strategies: High IV Premium Sale, Low IV Breakout, Earnings Play, Unusual Activity, Covered Call Income, Put Writing, Volatility Crush, Skew Anomaly, and Bargain Hunting. Each screen comes pre-configured with optimal filter settings based on professional trading best practices.

Real-Time IV Rank Data

IV Rank is calculated from ORATS institutional-grade data with intraday updates. You see the same IV metrics that professional desks and market makers use — not delayed or approximated values from free data sources.

Tradability Filters

Beyond IV and volume, ApexVol includes tradability filters that most screeners lack: bid-ask spread percentage, strike interval width, minimum open interest at key delta levels, and earnings proximity warnings. These filters prevent you from finding a great IV setup on an untradeable name.

Integrated Analysis

Click any screener result to jump directly into the full analysis suite — IV charts, Greeks heatmap, GEX profile, and options chain. The screener is not a standalone tool; it is the entry point into a complete analysis workflow that takes you from discovery to trade decision in minutes.

Building a Screening Workflow

The most effective traders follow a consistent daily screening workflow. Here is a template you can adapt:

Morning Routine (9:30-10:00 AM ET)

1. Run your primary screen (e.g., High IV Premium Sale with IV Rank > 50%, volume > 500, no earnings within 14 days)
2. Review the result list (typically 15-30 names). Eliminate any you have existing positions in (avoid concentration)
3. Check charts on the top 5-8 candidates. Look for support/resistance levels near your potential short strikes
4. Size and enter 1-3 new positions maximum (1-3% of portfolio each)

Weekly Routine

1. Run a "Bargain Hunt" screen (IV Rank < 15%) to identify cheap long premium opportunities
2. Run an "Unusual Activity" screen to see where smart money is positioning
3. Review earnings calendar and run an earnings-specific screen for the coming week
4. Assess portfolio diversification — are you concentrated in one sector?

Consistency is the key. Running the same screens at the same time each day builds pattern recognition. After a few weeks, you will intuitively know when IV Rank 65 in a particular sector is "normal" versus "unusually high" — context that only comes from repeated exposure to the data.

Key Takeaways