SabrTrader Documentation

Options Screener: Scanning, Scoring and Building Option Trades

The SabrTrader Options Screener is a scanning window that reduces a symbol universe to a ranked list of individual option contracts matching defined liquidity, volatility and expiration criteria. It is the front end of a three-stage workflow: screen a watchlist, hand the best candidate to the Option Chain or Strategy Analyzer, then review and place the resulting single-leg or multi-leg order. This page documents every control in the screener, every filter and its trading meaning, the scoring and colour system, the handoffs to the chain and analyzer, and the embedded AI analyst that can diagnose or build filter sets for you.

Overview: What the Options Screener Does

The Options Screener is a SabrTrader window that filters an option universe down to the specific contracts that satisfy a set of liquidity, volatility and structural criteria, then ranks the survivors with a numeric match score. It answers one question: of all the strikes and expirations available on the symbols I care about, which ones best fit the kind of trade I am trying to put on today?

The screener is a funnel, not a signal generator. It runs in three stages:

1. Screen. Define a symbol universe (typed tickers or a saved watchlist), choose or build a filter screen, and run a scan. Output: a ranked candidate table.
2. Structure. Open a candidate in the Option Chain or the Strategy Analyzer. The chain shows neighbouring strikes for comparison; the analyzer lets you convert a single leg into a spread, butterfly or other multi-leg structure and view its payoff diagram.
3. Execute. Press Review and Place to build an order ticket, choose limit, market or mid-price, and submit it through a connected broker account.

The screener is launched from the tool list in the SabrTrader Control Center alongside charts, the SuperDOM, Market Watch and the other platform windows. It requires an options data feed entitlement: without a market data source that carries option quotes, open interest and volatility statistics, scans return nothing and chains load empty. The options data source is independent of the broker used for order routing, so it is normal (and supported) to pull option data from one vendor while routing orders through, for example, a connected Schwab account.

What the screener is not

• It is not a recommendation engine. A high score means "this contract matches your active filters well", not "this trade is likely to make money".
• It is not a risk manager. Nothing in the screener prevents you from selecting a naked short call with theoretically unlimited risk.
• It is not a substitute for inspecting the payoff diagram, the bid-ask spread on the exact strike, and the event calendar for the underlying.

Opening the Screener and Setting the Symbol Universe

Open the Options Screener from the left-hand tool list in the Control Center. The window is divided into three areas:

• Top bar — the symbol entry field and watchlist loader, plus the Scan control.
• Left panel — the list of saved filter screens, including the pre-built presets shipped with the platform.
• Main area — the filter panel with the numeric criteria, and beneath it the ranked results table populated after a scan.

Entering symbols

There are two ways to define the universe the scan runs against:

1. Type tickers directly into the symbol field. Fast for a one-off check of one or two names.
2. Load a saved list. Click the list loader and choose a saved watchlist. SabrTrader ships preconfigured demo lists so the screener is usable immediately; the Mag 7 demo list (the seven mega-cap US technology names) is the one used in the walkthrough.

A watchlist in this context is simply a saved group of symbols the screener runs against. The current limit is 12 symbols per screener watchlist. That limit is a design constraint on scan breadth, not a bug: each symbol expands into hundreds of strike/expiration combinations, so twelve underlyings can already produce several thousand candidate contracts before filtering.

Creating your own list

Create and save the list before scanning rather than retyping tickers each session. In the demonstration a two-symbol list containing SPY and QQQ is created for index-only scanning. Saved lists persist with the workspace and can be reloaded into any future screener session. Symbol lists used elsewhere in the platform are managed in the same spirit as Market Analyzer watchlists, and building the list first is the single biggest time-saver in the whole workflow.

Practical universe choices

Universe	Typical use	Notes
Index ETFs (SPY, QQQ, IWM)	Premium selling, 0DTE and weekly structures	Deepest option liquidity, tightest spreads, no single-stock earnings risk
Mag 7 / mega-cap single stocks	High-IV premium selling, directional bets	Rich premium but exposed to earnings and headlines
Mixed 10-12 symbol list	Daily routine scan	Stays inside the 12-symbol limit and keeps match counts readable

Pre-Built Filter Screens

The left panel lists filter screens shipped with the platform. Each is a saved combination of filter values biased toward one trading objective. They are starting points, not signals: none of them encodes an edge, and each is expected to be modified and re-saved under your own name.

Screen	Bias	Typical filter shape	Structures it leads to
Collect Premium	Short premium in elevated implied volatility	High IV rank floor, high open interest, meaningful daily volume, 21-45 DTE window	Cash-secured puts, covered/naked calls, credit verticals, iron butterflies, broken wing butterflies
Bet on Direction	Long directional exposure, favoured when implied volatility is low	Lower IV requirement, liquidity filters retained, moderate DTE	Long calls and puts, debit verticals, bull call spreads
Cheap Long Shots	Low-cost far out-of-the-money contracts	Low premium cost, out-of-the-money strikes, short-to-medium DTE	Outright long calls/puts held as lottery tickets
Trade Ideas	Mixed candidate feed rather than a strict objective screen	Broader criteria across structures	Anything; used as a browsing surface, e.g. a single long call on a large-cap name

How to choose a screen

Pick the screen that matches your thesis about volatility, not your feeling about price:

• If implied volatility is high relative to its own recent range (high IV rank), option premium is expensive and selling is favoured — use Collect Premium.
• If implied volatility is low, including a low VIX reading market-wide, options are comparatively cheap and buying is favoured — use Bet on Direction.
• If you specifically want asymmetric, low-cost, low-probability exposure to a large move, use Cheap Long Shots and accept that most such positions expire worthless.

Every Filter Explained

The filter panel holds the numeric criteria a contract must satisfy to appear in the results. Each filter serves a distinct purpose; understanding what each one is actually protecting you from is what turns the screener from a toy into a tool.

IV rank

IV rank is where current implied volatility sits within its own 52-week high-low range, expressed as a percentile. An IV rank of 80 means current IV is higher than it has been 80% of the time in the last year. It is a relative measure: a stock that always trades at 60% IV has a low IV rank at 60%, while an index that normally trades at 12% has a very high IV rank at 25%. IV rank requires a year of historical implied volatility data and is commonly absent from broker-supplied feeds; a dedicated options data vendor is usually needed to populate it.

• Premium selling: require a high IV rank floor (commonly 30-50 and above) so you are selling options that are expensive relative to their own history.
• Premium buying: require a low IV rank ceiling so you are not paying an inflated volatility premium on a long option.

IV floor

The IV floor is a minimum absolute implied volatility threshold used to exclude contracts too cheap to be worth selling. IV rank tells you whether volatility is high for this symbol; the IV floor tells you whether there is enough absolute premium in the contract to justify the risk and the transaction cost. Raising the IV floor is the most direct way to filter out low-credit, low-reward short premium candidates.

Implied volatility

Implied volatility (IV) is the market's forward-looking volatility estimate embedded in an option's price, expressed as an annualised percentage. Higher IV means richer premium and a wider market-implied expected move. Filtering on raw IV is symbol-dependent and generally less useful than IV rank, but it is exposed for traders who work with absolute volatility levels.

Open interest

Open interest (OI) is the number of contracts currently outstanding at a specific strike and expiration. It is a liquidity proxy: strikes with large open interest usually have active market makers, tighter quotes and easier exits. In the walkthrough the premium screen uses an open interest requirement of just over 10,000 contracts, which is a strict, high-liquidity setting appropriate to mega-cap names and index ETFs. On smaller underlyings the same threshold will return almost nothing and should be reduced.

Daily option volume

Daily option volume is the number of contracts traded in the current session at that strike and expiration. Where open interest describes standing inventory, volume describes today's activity. A strike with high OI but zero volume today may still quote poorly. The walkthrough starts at a permissive 60 contracts, then raises it to 500 to tighten the list, then settles around 300 as a compromise between quality and match count.

Days to expiration (DTE)

Days to expiration is the number of calendar days remaining before the contract expires. The DTE filter is a window with a lower and an upper bound.

DTE window	Character	Common use
0-7	Extreme time decay, gamma-dominated, violent P&L swings	0DTE and weekly scalps; not a beginner premium-selling window
21-45	Fastest steady theta decay with manageable gamma	The standard premium-selling band and the default in the Collect Premium screen
60-120	Slower decay, more vega exposure, more time for a thesis to work	Directional debit spreads, calendars, longer swing structures

The strictness trade-off

Every filter you tighten removes candidates. The relationship is multiplicative: raising IV rank, open interest and volume simultaneously can take a 150-match list to two matches in one pass. The workable discipline is to tighten one filter at a time and watch the match count. If a scan returns fewer than roughly ten candidates across a 7-12 symbol list, at least one filter is set beyond what that universe supports.

Saving and Managing Custom Screens

Any preset can be edited and re-saved. The workflow is:

1. Select the preset closest to your objective (for example Collect Premium).
2. Adjust the filter values — raise the IV floor, set open interest to 10,000, set daily volume to 60, set the DTE window to 21-45.
3. Click Save as new screen and give it a descriptive name, for example Sell Premium.

The saved screen appears in the left panel alongside the presets and can be reloaded in any later session. The original presets are not overwritten.

Screens and watchlists are independent

A screen stores filter values. A watchlist stores symbols. They are saved separately and combined at scan time, which means one screen can be run against many lists and one list can be run through many screens. A practical setup is:

• Screens: Sell Premium, Buy Direction Low IV, Long Shots, Earnings Week Credit.
• Lists: Index ETFs, Mag 7, Earnings This Week, High IV Watch.

Naming convention

Name screens after the objective and the key constraint, not after the date. Sell Premium IVR40 45DTE is self-documenting six weeks later; Screen 3 is not. Keep one screen per objective rather than one screen that tries to do everything — a screen that mixes premium-selling and long-shot criteria will match almost nothing.

Running a Scan and Reading the Results Table

With a universe loaded and a screen selected, press Scan. The engine walks every strike and expiration on every symbol in the list and tests each contract against the active filters. A scan across seven mega-cap symbols takes several seconds; a progress state is shown while it runs.

Match count

When the run completes the screener reports the number of contracts that passed — 150 matches in the demonstration. The match count is a health check on your filters before you look at a single row:

• 0-2 matches: filters are over-tightened, or the universe cannot support them. Relax the IV floor, open interest or volume.
• 10-200 matches: a workable range. Score ranking does the rest of the work.
• Several hundred+ matches: filters are too loose to be discriminating. Tighten liquidity or narrow the DTE window.

The ranked results table

Results are listed one row per contract, sorted by match score descending. The match score is SabrTrader's composite ranking of how well a candidate satisfies the currently active screen. It is relative, not absolute: a score of 71 under the Collect Premium screen means "the best fit for these premium-selling filters in this universe today", and the same contract could score poorly under a directional screen.

Colour coding

Colour	Meaning	Action
Green	Strongest fit to the active screen criteria	Primary candidates — inspect the chain or payoff before acting
Orange	Marginal fit; passes the filters but scores lower on the composite	Worth reviewing when the green list is thin, but expect a weaker match on one or more criteria

It is common for a scan to return many rows but only one green row. That is the screener working as intended: the colour is telling you where the concentration of fit is, not that the other rows are untradeable.

Live re-evaluation of candidates

The filter controls remain active after a scan. Moving a slider or editing a value re-evaluates the existing candidate set in real time without a full rescan, so the ranked list updates as you drag. This is the fastest way to feel how sensitive your results are to a single threshold: raise daily volume from 60 to 500 and watch which names survive, then ease it back to 300 and watch them return.

Note the distinction: live re-filtering narrows or re-ranks what the scan already found. To widen the universe beyond what the original scan retrieved — for example after loosening a filter well below the original setting, or after adding a symbol to the list — run Scan again.

From Result to Option Chain

Clicking through a result to the chain opens the Option Chain for that underlying with two things pre-selected:

• The recommended expiration the screener matched (18 September in the demonstration).
• The suggested strike, highlighted within that expiration.

An option chain is the full grid of calls and puts for one underlying, organised by expiration across the top and strike price down the side. Each cell carries the quote data for that contract: bid, ask, last, volume, open interest, implied volatility and Greeks where the feed supplies them.

What the chain is for

1. Comparing neighbouring strikes. The screener returns one strike. The chain shows the strikes either side, so you can see whether moving one strike further out of the money costs you 10% of the credit or 50%.
2. Comparing expirations. Switch expiration months to see how much additional premium the next cycle pays for the extra time risk.
3. Finding where premium is richest across the watchlist. Loading the chain for each scanned symbol in turn shows which underlying carries the most overvalued premium — options priced with implied volatility above what realised movement is likely to justify. In the walkthrough Tesla is identified this way.
4. Checking the actual quote. The bid-ask spread on the exact contract is the real cost of entry. A 0.02 wide spread on a liquid index strike and a 0.60 wide spread on a thin single-stock strike are entirely different trades even at the same score.

The chain takes a moment to populate on first load because the platform pulls the full expiration grid from the data feed. Wait for the grid to finish rendering before reading quotes.

From Result to Strategy Analyzer: Building the Structure

Open in Strategy Analyzer is the second handoff and the one with more functionality. The Strategy Analyzer loads the screener's candidate as a position and gives you leg-level editing plus a payoff diagram — a chart of profit and loss at expiration across a range of underlying prices.

Reading the payoff diagram

The horizontal axis is the price of the underlying at expiration; the vertical axis is profit and loss. The zero line is break-even. The shape tells you everything structural about the position:

• A flat line that turns down and keeps falling = undefined risk in that direction.
• A flat line that turns down and then flattens again = a long hedging leg caps the loss; the position is defined risk.
• A peak with sloping sides = a butterfly or condor "tent", profitable only in a band around the body.

The price range on the payoff chart is adjustable. Widen it before judging any short-premium structure: a naked call looks harmless on a narrow range and reveals its true profile only when the range is extended well beyond the current spot price.

Step 1 — inspect the single-leg baseline

The screener's raw candidate is usually a single leg. In the demonstration it is a short 403-strike call on Tesla with spot at 341. That is a naked call: a short call with no long call hedge, carrying theoretically unlimited loss if the underlying rallies through the strike and keeps going. The credit is capped; the risk is not.

Step 2 — convert to a defined-risk structure

The analyzer converts structures with one action per change. The common conversions from a short single leg are:

Structure	Legs	Definition	Risk
Vertical spread	2	Buy and sell the same expiration at different strikes	Defined on both sides; reward capped
Bull put vertical	2	Sell a higher-strike put, buy a lower-strike put, net credit	Max loss = strike width − credit
Bull call spread	2	Buy a lower-strike call, sell a higher-strike call, net debit	Max loss = debit paid
Iron butterfly	4	Sell an at-the-money straddle, buy protective wings above and below	Defined; profits if the underlying pins near the body
Broken wing butterfly	4	Butterfly with unequal wing widths, shifting risk to one side	Often removes risk entirely on one side, usually for a credit
Inverted spread	2	Short strike placed beyond the long strike	Alters the profile; used to repair or re-express a view

In the walkthrough the naked call is turned into a vertical, then inverted, then built into an iron butterfly (judged "too narrow"), then one wing is shifted to produce a broken wing butterfly with no risk above the market, some risk below, and a clean tent-shaped profit zone. Legs can also be added individually to any structure — for example adding a call to a bullish spread to change the upper profile.

Step 3 — build directly from a chain result

The same construction works from a chain candidate. A green-scored short put at the 225 strike becomes a bull put vertical by selling the 225 put and buying the 215 put in the same 18 September expiration. The result is a credit position with maximum loss equal to the 10-point strike width minus the credit received, instead of assignment exposure all the way down to zero.

Recalculation delay

Every structural change triggers a repricing of all legs against live quotes and a redraw of the payoff curve. There is a visible pause of a second or two while the analyzer pulls data and recalculates. Wait for the curve to redraw before reading maximum profit, maximum loss or break-evens — mid-recalculation values are stale.

Placing the Trade: Review and Place

Review and Place is available from both the Option Chain and the Strategy Analyzer and opens the order ticket for the structure currently displayed, with all legs attached.

Order ticket controls

• Price adjustment. Edit the net debit or credit for the whole structure before submitting.
• Limit order. Executes only at your specified price or better. The default choice for options, because it protects you from the spread.
• Market order. Executes immediately at whatever the book offers. On options this is the most expensive order type and should be reserved for liquid index strikes or emergency exits.
• Mid-price order. Targets the midpoint of the bid-ask spread. A reasonable opening attempt on a multi-leg structure; if it does not fill, walk the price toward the natural in small increments.

Broker account requirement

Submitting an order requires a connected brokerage account with options trading permissions. Market data and order routing are separate concerns in SabrTrader: in the demonstration the option data comes from a dedicated options vendor while the Schwab brokerage connection is not connected, so scans, chains and payoff analysis all work but the ticket cannot be submitted. If the ticket reports no account, the fix is on the connection side, not in the screener.

Before you submit

1. Confirm the expiration on the ticket matches the one you analysed.
2. Confirm leg quantities and buy/sell direction on every leg.
3. Compare your limit price to the current bid-ask on the combination, not on the individual legs.
4. Confirm the maximum loss on the payoff diagram is a size you have sized for, especially on any undefined-risk leg.

Using the AI Analyst with the Screener

The AI analyst is an LLM-backed side panel available in the screener as it is across the rest of SabrTrader. It receives the current screener context — the active filters, the loaded watchlist and the scan results — along with your prompt, and returns written analysis. Configure the provider and model in Preferences; see AI Setup: Connecting an LLM Provider. The selected model materially affects the quality and depth of the output.

Suggested prompts shipped with the panel

Prompt	What it does	When to use it
Why so few matches	Diagnoses which filter is the binding constraint on the current scan	After a scan returns two matches or none
Diagnose my filters and propose changes	Reviews the whole filter set for internal contradictions and suggests specific value changes	When a screen consistently produces poor candidates
Scan my watchlist	Runs analysis across the loaded symbols and summarises what stands out	As a first pass on an unfamiliar list

The suggestions are starting points; the prompt box accepts any free text.

Building filters from an objective

You can start with no scan and no filters and simply state an objective — for example "build me a screen to collect premium with 21 to 45 days to expiration" — and the AI analyst will propose a complete filter set. Review the proposed values against your own liquidity requirements before saving the result as a named screen. This is the fastest route from a vague intention to a reusable, saved screen.

Why options are where an LLM adds most

An option universe of a dozen underlyings contains thousands of contracts, each with strike, expiration, bid, ask, volume, open interest, implied volatility and Greeks. That is a volume of structured numeric data a human cannot scan quickly but a model can summarise instantly. This is qualitatively different from asking an AI to read a 15-minute chart and report that RSI is above 60 and price is at the upper Bollinger Band — information already visible on the chart. Use the AI where the data volume is the bottleneck.

Idea generation versus execution

The AI analyst is an idea generation and diagnosis tool. It surfaces candidates, explains why a filter set is returning nothing, and proposes alternative structures for a stated view. It does not carry responsibility for position sizing, correlation across your open positions, assignment management or your account risk limits. Treat its output as counsel to be verified, in the same way the AI Coach in Trade Performance reviews results without deciding your next trade.

The Trade Ideas panel

Separate from the AI panel, the Trade Ideas screen surfaces candidate structures directly — for example a specific 355-strike call on a large-cap name. Ideas can be opened in the analyzer, converted (a naked put into a capped bull put vertical, a bullish view into a bull call spread), inverted or extended with an additional leg, exactly like any screener result.

Trading Concepts Behind the Filters

Why high IV rank favours selling and low IV favours buying

Option premium is a function of expected future movement. When implied volatility is high relative to the symbol's own 52-week range, the market is charging a lot for that expectation. If realised movement then comes in below what was priced, the seller keeps the difference. When IV is low, the same logic runs in reverse: options are cheap relative to their history, and the buyer's cost of being wrong on timing is smaller. The VIX — the index of 30-day implied volatility on S&P 500 options — is the market-wide version of the same gauge; a low VIX reading is one input into deciding to buy rather than sell.

Time decay as the premium seller's edge

Theta is the erosion of an option's extrinsic value as expiration approaches. It works continuously and in only one direction: toward zero at expiry. Selling premium monetises theta, which is why the 21-45 DTE window is the standard filter — decay is meaningfully fast there while gamma risk has not yet become violent. The trade-off is that theta is small and steady while adverse price movement can be large and sudden, which is why sizing and defined risk matter more than the credit collected.

Defined risk versus undefined risk

A position is defined risk when a long hedging leg caps the maximum possible loss and undefined risk when it does not.

• A naked call has theoretically unlimited loss: there is no ceiling on how far the underlying can rally.
• A naked put risks assignment of the underlying down to zero; the loss is bounded only by the stock going to nothing.
• A vertical spread, iron butterfly or broken wing butterfly caps the loss at a known number you can compute before entry.

The screener frequently returns naked single legs as top-scoring candidates because they carry the most premium. Converting a green-scored naked candidate into its defined-risk equivalent in the analyzer costs some credit and removes the tail.

Liquidity, open interest, volume and the spread

The bid-ask spread is the gap between the best bid and the best offer and is a real, immediate cost paid on entry and again on exit. Wide spreads are the main hidden expense in options. Open interest and daily volume are the two filters that proxy for spread quality: strikes with thousands of contracts outstanding and hundreds traded today are quoted competitively; strikes with a handful of each are not. Always check the spread on the specific strike, because a highly liquid underlying can still have illiquid far-out-of-the-money strikes.

Probability of profit and risk/reward

Probability of profit is the estimated chance a position finishes profitable at expiration. Risk/reward ratio compares maximum loss to maximum gain. The two must be read together. A credit spread with an 85% probability of profit that risks 9 to make 1 and a long shot with a 5% probability that risks 1 to make 20 can both be rational or both be reckless; what decides it is whether the actual probability exceeds the ratio implied by the payoff, and whether you are sized for the losing case.

Long shots and lottery tickets

Long shot options are cheap, far out-of-the-money contracts with a low probability of profit and a large payoff if they work. In the walkthrough a long call is considered at a cost of 264 dollars for uncapped upside. The correct mental model is that the entire premium is expected to be lost most of the time; position size must be set on that assumption, not on the payoff fantasy.

Assignment risk

Assignment risk is the possibility that a short option is exercised against you. It rises close to expiration, when a short option is in the money, and around ex-dividend dates for short calls. It is a reason to close short premium positions before expiry rather than to hold them for the last few cents of decay.

Step-by-Step Tutorial: From Watchlist to Order Ticket

1. Create and save a watchlist first. Build the symbol list before opening the screener and save it. Stay at or under the 12-symbol limit. Example lists: Index ETFs (SPY, QQQ, IWM) or Mag 7.
2. Open the Options Screener from the tool list in the Control Center. Confirm your options data feed is connected — without it, scans return nothing.
3. Load the list. Use the list loader at the top of the window rather than typing tickers. The demo lists shipped with the platform are available here if you have not built your own.
4. Pick the preset that matches your volatility thesis. Collect Premium if IV rank is elevated, Bet on Direction if IV is depressed, Cheap Long Shots for asymmetric lottery tickets.
5. Tune the filters one at a time. Set the IV floor and IV rank for your objective, set open interest (for example 10,000 on mega-caps, lower on smaller names), set daily volume (start at 60 and raise toward 300-500 if too many matches), and set the DTE window (21-45 for premium selling).
6. Save the configuration as a named screen. Click Save as new screen and name it after the objective, for example Sell Premium IVR40 45DTE.
7. Press Scan and wait for the run to complete. Read the match count first. If it is under about ten, relax a filter and rescan.
8. Read the ranked table. Results are sorted by match score. Focus on the green rows; treat orange rows as second-tier. Use live filter adjustment to see how sensitive the ranking is to each threshold.
9. Open the best candidate in the Option Chain to compare neighbouring strikes, check the bid-ask spread on the exact contract, and confirm the pre-selected expiration is the one you want.
10. Open the candidate in the Strategy Analyzer. Widen the payoff chart price range until the full profile is visible, then read maximum profit, maximum loss and break-evens.
11. Convert to defined risk if the baseline is naked. Turn a short call into a call credit vertical, a short put into a bull put vertical, or build a butterfly or broken wing butterfly. Wait for the payoff curve to finish recalculating after each change.
12. Ask the AI analyst to critique the structure and the filters. Use "diagnose my filters and propose changes" if the candidate list was weak, or ask for alternative structures for the same directional view.
13. Press Review and Place. Verify legs, quantities and expiration, set a limit or mid-price, and submit through your connected broker account.
14. Record the trade rationale. Note the screen name, the score, the IV rank at entry and the maximum loss, so the position can be reviewed later in Trade Performance.

Best Practices

• Build watchlists before you scan. Typing tickers each session wastes time and invites typos. Saved lists also make results comparable day to day.
• Keep one screen per objective. A premium screen and a directional screen have contradictory volatility requirements; merging them produces zero matches.
• Never trade a green score without inspecting the payoff diagram. The score describes fit to filters, not the shape of the risk you are taking on.
• Prefer defined-risk conversions on high-scoring naked candidates. The screener favours naked legs because they carry the most premium. Convert first, then decide whether the reduced credit is still worth it.
• Check liquidity on the exact strike. A liquid underlying does not guarantee a liquid contract. Read open interest, today's volume and the quoted spread on the specific strike and expiration you intend to trade.
• Widen the payoff price range before judging any short-premium structure. A narrow range hides undefined risk.
• Use the AI analyst for filter diagnosis, not trade permission. "Why so few matches" is a good question for a model; "should I take this trade" is not.
• Tighten filters one at a time. Change a single threshold, watch the live re-evaluation, then change the next. Simultaneous changes make it impossible to know which one killed the list.
• Scan away from the closing bell. Quotes widen and volume statistics are distorted in the last minutes of the session, so candidates found then may not be tradeable at the displayed prices.
• Match open interest thresholds to the universe. 10,000 contracts is a reasonable floor on index ETFs and mega-caps and an impossible floor on mid-caps.
• Experiment during trial access. Run the screener across several screens and lists before committing to a subscription, and confirm your intended data source populates IV rank.

Common Mistakes

• Treating the match score as a trade signal. The score ranks fit to the active screen. Change the screen and the ranking changes completely. It says nothing about whether the underlying is about to move.
• Over-tightening filters until the list collapses. Two matches on a seven-symbol scan is a filter problem, not a market observation. Relax the IV floor, open interest or volume.
• Ignoring the 12-symbol limit. Typing more symbols than the limit allows, or retyping the same list every session instead of saving it, wastes time and produces inconsistent scans.
• Selling naked calls without sizing for unlimited risk. A short call with no long hedge has no defined maximum loss. If you would not accept the loss from a 30% overnight gap, do not hold the position unhedged.
• Selling naked puts and forgetting assignment. A short put risks being assigned the underlying at the strike, which requires capital and can be triggered early when the option is deep in the money or around dividends.
• Buying long shots without accepting near-total loss probability. Cheap far out-of-the-money options are cheap because they usually expire worthless. Size them as expenses, not as positions.
• Judging premium richness by absolute IV instead of IV rank. A 45% IV is expensive on an index and cheap on a high-beta single stock. IV rank normalises the comparison.
• Reading the payoff mid-recalculation. The analyzer takes a moment to reprice after each structural change. Values read during the pause are stale.
• Scanning into the close and assuming quotes are actionable. Late-session spreads widen, and the mid-price you analysed may not exist the next morning.
• Assuming AI output is a recommendation. The AI analyst proposes filters and interprets data. Selection, sizing and risk remain the trader's decision.
• Trading a structure without checking the combination spread. A four-leg butterfly on illiquid strikes can carry a combined spread larger than the theoretical edge in the trade.
• Confusing the data feed with the broker. Options data and order routing are independent connections. Having quotes does not mean you can submit an order.

Frequently Asked Questions

What data feed do I need to use the SabrTrader options screener?

You need a market data source with an options data entitlement — one that supplies option quotes, open interest, daily volume and, for IV rank filtering, historical implied volatility. Without it the screener returns no matches and option chains load empty. Broker-supplied feeds commonly carry quotes and Greeks but omit volatility statistics such as IV rank, which usually requires a dedicated options data vendor. The data source is independent of the broker used for execution, so you can pull option data from one vendor while routing orders through another, such as a connected Schwab account.

How is the screener's score calculated and what do the green and orange colors mean?

The match score is a composite ranking of how well a candidate contract satisfies the criteria of the currently active screen. It aggregates the contract's standing on the active filters — volatility level, liquidity, expiration fit and structural criteria — into a single number, and results are sorted by it descending. Green marks the strongest fits; orange marks marginal candidates that pass the filters but score lower. The score is relative to the screen, not an absolute quality rating: the same contract can be green under a premium-selling screen and unranked under a directional screen. It is not a prediction of profitability.

How many symbols can I put in an options screener watchlist?

The current limit is 12 symbols per screener watchlist. This limit may increase in future releases. The constraint exists because each underlying expands into hundreds of strike and expiration combinations, so twelve symbols can already generate several thousand candidate contracts before filtering. The recommended practice is to create and save the list before opening the screener rather than typing symbols each session.

Can I save my own filter screens and reuse them?

Yes. Select any pre-built screen, modify the filter values, then click Save as new screen and give it a name. The saved screen appears in the left panel alongside the presets and can be reloaded at any time; the original presets are not overwritten. Screens store filter values only and watchlists store symbols only, so any saved screen can be run against any saved list. Name screens after the objective and its key constraint — for example Sell Premium IVR40 45DTE — so they are self-documenting later.

What is the difference between opening a result in the option chain and in the analyzer?

The Option Chain shows the full grid of calls and puts by strike and expiration for that underlying, with the screener's recommended expiration and strike pre-selected. Use it to compare neighbouring strikes and other expirations, to check the bid-ask spread on the exact contract, and to see where premium is richest across a symbol. The Strategy Analyzer loads the candidate as a position and adds leg-level editing plus an adjustable payoff diagram. Use it to convert a single leg into a vertical, butterfly, broken wing butterfly or inverted spread, to add legs, and to read maximum profit, maximum loss and break-evens. Both offer Review and Place. Full detail on both windows is on the Options Workstation page.

How do I turn a naked short option candidate into a defined-risk spread?

Open the candidate in the Strategy Analyzer and add a long leg further out of the money in the same expiration. A short call becomes a call credit vertical by buying a higher-strike call; a short put becomes a bull put vertical by buying a lower-strike put — for example selling the 225 put and buying the 215 put in the same cycle. Maximum loss becomes the strike width minus the net credit received. You can extend further into an iron butterfly or a broken wing butterfly. Wait for the payoff curve to finish recalculating after each change before reading the numbers.

Why is my Review and Place button not submitting an order?

Order submission requires a connected brokerage account with options permissions. Market data and order routing are separate in SabrTrader: you can have full option quotes from a data vendor while no broker account is connected, in which case scans, chains and payoff analysis all work but the ticket cannot be sent. Check the connection status in the Control Center, connect and authorize the broker account, confirm the account is funded and approved for the option strategy level you are attempting, then reopen the ticket.

What does IV rank mean and what value should I use for selling premium?

IV rank is where current implied volatility sits within its own 52-week high-low range, expressed as a percentile. IV rank 80 means current IV is higher than it has been 80% of the time in the past year. For premium selling, traders commonly require an IV rank floor somewhere in the 30-50 range or above, so they are selling options that are expensive relative to that symbol's own history. There is no universally correct number: a higher floor produces fewer, richer candidates; a lower floor produces more candidates with thinner credit. IV rank requires a year of historical IV data and is often unavailable on broker-supplied feeds.

Why did my scan return only two matches?

One or more filters are set beyond what your universe supports. The usual culprits, in order, are an open interest threshold too high for the symbols in the list (10,000 contracts is realistic on index ETFs and mega-caps but not on mid-caps), a daily volume requirement too high, an IV floor or IV rank floor above where those symbols currently trade, or a DTE window too narrow to contain a listed expiration. Relax one filter at a time and watch the candidate count update live. You can also ask the AI analyst "why so few matches" — it will identify the binding constraint.

Can the AI analyst build screener filters for me?

Yes. You can start with no scan and no filters and state an objective in plain language — for example "build a screen to collect premium with 21 to 45 days to expiration" — and the AI analyst will propose a complete filter set. It can also diagnose an existing set ("diagnose my filters and propose changes") and summarise a watchlist scan. Review proposed values against your own liquidity requirements before saving them as a named screen. The output quality depends on the LLM you have selected in AI setup.

Which pre-built screen should I use if I want to bet on direction?

Use the Bet on Direction screen. It is biased toward long directional exposure and is most appropriate when implied volatility is low — including a low market-wide VIX reading — because cheap options make buying comparatively attractive. It leads to long calls and puts and to debit verticals such as bull call spreads. If you want asymmetric, very low-cost exposure with a low probability of profit, use Cheap Long Shots instead and size the position on the assumption that the premium is lost.

Does the screener work without a connected broker account?

Yes, provided you have an options data feed. Scanning, ranking, opening the option chain, building multi-leg structures in the Strategy Analyzer and viewing payoff diagrams all work on data alone. Only the final order submission requires a connected, funded and options-approved brokerage account. This is the exact configuration shown in the walkthrough: option data from a dedicated vendor with the Schwab brokerage connection offline.

What is the difference between open interest and daily option volume?

Open interest is the number of contracts currently outstanding at a strike and expiration — standing inventory that accumulates over time. Daily option volume is the number of contracts traded during the current session — today's activity. A strike can have high open interest and zero volume today, which means positions exist but nobody is actively quoting or trading it. Filter on both: open interest confirms the strike is used, volume confirms it is being traded right now, and together they predict a tighter bid-ask spread.

Why does the screener recommend a specific expiration and can I change it?

The screener pre-selects the expiration that best satisfied your DTE filter for the matched contract — 18 September in the demonstration — and highlights the matched strike when the chain opens. This is a convenience, not a constraint. Change the expiration tab in the Option Chain to see any other listed cycle, and compare the additional premium the next cycle pays against the extra time risk. If the pre-selected expiration is consistently wrong for your style, adjust the DTE window in the filter panel.

What is a broken wing butterfly and why would I build one from a screener result?

A broken wing butterfly is a four-leg butterfly with unequal wing widths. Shifting one wing skews the risk profile so that risk is removed entirely on one side of the market, usually while collecting a net credit, at the cost of larger risk on the other side. Traders build them from screener results when a top-scoring short candidate is directionally acceptable but the naked exposure is not: the structure keeps a defined tent-shaped profit zone, eliminates the tail on one side, and still collects premium. Build it in the Strategy Analyzer by constructing an iron butterfly and then moving one wing strike.

Does adjusting a filter after a scan require a full rescan?

No, for narrowing. Editing filter values after a scan re-evaluates the existing candidate set in real time, so the ranked list and colour coding update as you move a slider. This is designed for tuning — raise daily volume from 60 to 500 and watch which candidates survive. You do need to press Scan again when you widen a filter well below the original scan's settings, add symbols to the watchlist, or want fresh quotes after significant time has passed.

What order type should I use for a multi-leg option order?

Use a limit or mid-price order. A mid-price order targets the midpoint of the bid-ask spread and is a reasonable first attempt on a multi-leg structure; if it does not fill, walk the limit price toward the natural in small increments. Avoid market orders on options except on very liquid index strikes or as an emergency exit, because the bid-ask spread on options — and especially on a four-leg combination — can be a large fraction of the theoretical edge in the trade.

Is the Options Screener useful for 0DTE trading?

It can be, but the standard presets are not built for it. The Collect Premium screen defaults to a 21-45 DTE window, which excludes same-day expirations entirely. To scan 0DTE you must set the DTE window to include zero, and you should expect the screener's volatility statistics to be less meaningful at that horizon because gamma, not theta or IV rank, dominates same-day option behaviour. Liquidity filters remain essential: same-day contracts away from the money can quote very poorly.

Troubleshooting

Scan returns no results, or option chains open blank

This is almost always a missing options data feed entitlement. Confirm in the Control Center that a data connection carrying option quotes is connected and shows an active status. If the feed is connected but IV rank fields are empty, the source supplies quotes but not historical implied volatility; use a dedicated options data vendor or remove IV rank from the filter set. Also confirm the symbols in your watchlist actually have listed options.

Review and Place opens but the order cannot be submitted / no account is shown

No brokerage account is connected, or the connected account lacks options permissions. Open the Connections area of the Control Center and connect the broker (for example, follow the Schwab connection guide). Confirm the account is selected in the ticket, is funded, and is approved for the option strategy level you are attempting — many brokers require a higher approval tier for naked short options than for defined-risk spreads.

Option chain or Strategy Analyzer takes several seconds to load or redraw

This is expected data-pull latency. Opening a chain requests the entire expiration grid from the feed, and every structural change in the analyzer reprices all legs and redraws the payoff curve. Wait for the grid or curve to finish rendering before reading quotes, maximum profit, maximum loss or break-evens; values read mid-recalculation are stale. If loads take unusually long on every symbol, check the data connection status and latency indicator.

Scan returns only two matches, or none at all

Filters are over-tightened for the loaded universe. Relax them one at a time, in this order: lower the open interest requirement, lower the daily volume requirement, lower the IV floor and IV rank floor, then widen the DTE window. Watch the candidate count update live as you change each value. Alternatively, open the AI analyst and use the why so few matches prompt, which identifies the binding constraint and proposes specific replacement values.

The chain opens on an expiration I did not want

The screener pre-selects the expiration that matched your DTE filter for that candidate. Change the expiration tab in the Option Chain to load any other listed cycle. If the pre-selection is repeatedly wrong for your trading style, adjust the DTE window in the filter panel and re-save the screen.

The watchlist will not load into the screener

Create and save the list first — the loader only shows saved lists and the preconfigured demo lists. Keep the list at or under the current 12-symbol limit; lists exceeding it may fail to load or be truncated. Verify each symbol is a valid, options-listed ticker on the connected data source, and check that the workspace containing the saved list is the one currently open.

Candidates disappear as soon as I touch a slider and do not come back

Live re-evaluation filters the set the scan already retrieved. If you relax a filter well below its value at scan time, the contracts that would now qualify were never fetched, so the list stays empty. Press Scan again to rebuild the candidate pool with the new settings.

Payoff diagram looks flat or harmless on a short option

The price range on the payoff chart is too narrow. Widen the range well beyond the current spot price — a naked call shows no visible loss until the range extends past the short strike. Always widen the range before judging any short-premium structure, then re-read maximum loss.

Quotes on scanned candidates look untradeable when I try to enter

Two common causes. First, you scanned near the closing bell, when spreads widen and displayed mid prices become unreachable; rescan during regular liquid hours. Second, the specific strike is illiquid even though the underlying is not. Check open interest, today's volume and the quoted bid-ask on the exact contract in the chain, and raise the liquidity filters in your screen so such strikes stop appearing.

The AI analyst returns vague or unhelpful output

Check which model is selected — output quality varies materially by LLM. Configure the provider and model in Preferences as described in AI Setup. Also make the prompt specific: "diagnose my filters and propose changes for a 21-45 DTE credit screen on index ETFs" produces far better results than "what should I trade". If the panel returns an authentication or quota error, verify the API key and the provider credit balance.

Glossary

AI analyst

An LLM-backed assistant embedded across SabrTrader that interprets scan results, diagnoses filter sets and proposes filter changes or alternative structures from a stated objective.

Assignment risk

The possibility that a short option is exercised against the seller, obliging delivery or purchase of the underlying. It increases when the short option is in the money, near expiration, and around ex-dividend dates for short calls.

Bid-ask spread

The gap between the best bid and the best offer. It is a real cost paid on entry and exit and widens sharply in illiquid option strikes.

Break-even price

The underlying price at expiration at which a position produces zero profit or loss. A long call breaks even at strike plus premium paid; a long put at strike minus premium paid.

Broken wing butterfly

A butterfly with unequal wing widths, which skews the risk profile toward one direction and often removes risk entirely on one side of the market, usually for a net credit.

Bull call spread

A defined-risk bullish debit position that buys a lower-strike call and sells a higher-strike call in the same expiration. Maximum loss is the net debit paid.

Bull put vertical

A credit vertical that sells a higher-strike put and buys a lower-strike put in the same expiration, expressing a bullish or neutral view with defined risk. Maximum loss equals strike width minus credit received.

Daily option volume

The number of option contracts traded at a strike and expiration during the current session, used to exclude illiquid strikes with wide spreads.

Days to expiration (DTE)

The number of calendar days remaining until an option expires. Commonly filtered to a 21-45 day window for premium selling, where theta decay is fast but gamma risk is still manageable.

Defined risk vs undefined risk

Whether a position's maximum loss is capped by a long hedging leg (defined) or left open-ended (undefined). Naked short options are undefined risk; verticals and butterflies are defined risk.

Directional bet

An option position whose profit depends primarily on the underlying moving in one direction, as opposed to a position that profits from time decay or volatility change.

Expiration date

The date on which an option contract stops trading and settles. Every option belongs to exactly one expiration, and the choice of expiration drives time decay and strategy selection.

Idea generation vs execution

The distinction between using scans and AI to surface candidates and making the trade decision. Selection, sizing and risk management remain the trader's responsibility.

Implied volatility (IV)

The market's forward-looking volatility estimate embedded in an option's price, expressed as an annualised percentage. Higher IV means richer premium and a wider market-implied expected move.

Inverted spread

A spread in which the short strike is placed beyond the long strike, changing the risk profile relative to a conventional vertical.

Iron butterfly

A four-leg neutral structure that sells an at-the-money straddle and buys protective wings above and below, profiting when the underlying pins near the body at expiration.

IV floor

A minimum absolute implied volatility threshold used in a screen to exclude contracts too cheap to be worth selling.

IV rank

Where current implied volatility sits relative to its own 52-week high-low range, expressed as a percentile. It indicates whether option premium is rich or cheap for that specific symbol.

Limit, market and mid-price orders

Order types controlling execution price. A limit order executes only at a specified price or better; a market order executes immediately at whatever the book offers; a mid-price order targets the midpoint of the bid-ask spread.

Long shot options

Cheap, far out-of-the-money option contracts with a low probability of profit and a large payoff if the underlying makes an outsized move. Most expire worthless.

Match score

SabrTrader's composite ranking of how well a candidate contract satisfies the criteria of the currently active screen. Green marks the strongest fits; orange marks marginal candidates. It is relative to the screen, not an absolute quality or profitability rating.

Naked call

A short call with no long call hedge. Loss is theoretically unlimited because there is no ceiling on how far the underlying can rally.

Naked put

A short put with no long put hedge. The maximum loss is bounded only by the underlying falling to zero, and assignment obliges the seller to buy the shares at the strike.

Open interest

The number of option contracts currently outstanding at a given strike and expiration. It is a standing-inventory measure used as a proxy for liquidity.

Option chain

The full grid of calls and puts for a single underlying, organised by expiration across the top and strike price down the side, with quote and Greek data in each cell.

Options data feed entitlement

The market data subscription or permission required to populate the screener and option chains with quotes, open interest, volume and volatility statistics. It is independent of the broker connection used for order routing.

Options screener

A scanning tool that filters an option universe down to the contracts matching defined liquidity, volatility and structural criteria, then ranks the survivors by a match score.

Overvalued premium

Options priced with implied volatility above what the underlying's likely realised movement justifies, making them attractive to sell.

Payoff diagram

A chart of profit and loss at expiration plotted across a range of underlying prices. Butterflies produce a tent shape; verticals produce a stepped profile with flat capped ends.

Premium selling

Collecting option premium with the expectation that time decay and volatility contraction outpace adverse price movement in the underlying.

Probability of profit

The estimated chance that a position finishes profitable at expiration, derived from option pricing and the distance of the break-even price from the current underlying price.

Risk/reward ratio

The comparison of a position's maximum loss to its maximum gain, used together with probability of profit to judge whether the odds justify the trade.

Strike price

The price at which the holder of an option can buy (call) or sell (put) the underlying if the option is exercised.

Time decay (theta)

The erosion of an option's extrinsic value as expiration approaches. It works continuously toward zero at expiry and is the core edge for premium sellers.

Vertical spread

A two-leg option position that buys and sells the same expiration at different strikes, capping both maximum loss and maximum gain.

VIX

The index of 30-day implied volatility on S&P 500 options, used as a market-wide gauge of option pricing. A low VIX indicates comparatively cheap index option premium.

Watchlist

A saved group of symbols the screener runs its scan against. The current screener limit is 12 symbols per list.

Related Documentation