MomentumSift
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Most active options
See the most active options in the market each day, ranked by total daily contract volume so the names drawing the most attention sit at the top of the list, refreshed after the close.
Open the app →What it shows
- Names ranked by option volume. The board sums total option contract volume per symbol across the near expirations the scan covers, then orders the market from busiest down.
- One row per stock. You are reading which tickers are active, not a single strike, so a name cannot flood the list with a dozen adjacent contracts.
- A read on where attention is. The names near the top are usually reacting to earnings, news, or a large positioning event, which is a useful starting shortlist for the day.
- Cross-checkable against flow. Pair the ranking with the unusual options activity scanner and open-interest positioning to see whether the volume is fresh directional betting or routine churn.
How it works
Each day the scan totals option contract volume by underlying and stores one figure per symbol, then sorts. Because volume resets every morning, the ranking is a snapshot of that session only. It is built from an end-of-day chain snapshot rather than a live trade tape, so it tells you which names were active, not the exact second-by-second order flow. For the reasons above we surface the order rather than leaning on the counts.
Volume vs open interest
Volume and open interest answer two different questions. Volume is how many contracts traded today, and it is the noisier of the two because the same contract can be bought and sold many times in a session. Open interest is how many contracts are still held open, a settled figure that updates once a day, and it is the more reliable number of the pair. A spike in volume that is also well above open interest points to new positions being opened rather than existing ones traded back and forth. The full explainer is in what is open interest.
How to use it
Treat the list as a where-to-look tool, not a signal. The most active names are a shortlist worth a second look: check whether the flow leans bought or sold, whether volume is running above open interest, and whether the move lines up with the stock's trend before you read anything into it.
Open the app →FAQ
- What are the most active options today?
- The stocks whose option contracts traded the highest volume during the session. MomentumSift totals daily contract volume per symbol and ranks names from busiest down, so the tickers drawing the most attention rise to the top.
- Does high option volume mean the stock will move?
- Not on its own. High volume is a sign of interest, not direction, and much of it can be hedging or closing trades. Read it with whether the flow is bought or sold, whether volume ran above open interest, and the trend.
- Is options volume the same as open interest?
- No. Volume counts contracts traded today and resets each morning; open interest counts contracts still held open and updates once a day after settlement. See the open interest explainer.