Whale watch and unusual options activity
How unusual options flow is detected, what sweeps and blocks mean, and how it ties to your holdings.
4 min readFull guide (PDF)
Unusual options activity is the club's signature signal: outsized, urgent options orders that suggest someone with conviction is positioning ahead of a move. Whale watch is the live feed of that activity.
Reading the feed
- Sweeps — an order split across multiple exchanges to fill fast. Urgency matters more than size.
- Blocks — large negotiated prints, often institutional.
- Aggressor side — whether the trade hit the ask or the bid tells you who was in a hurry.
- Size versus open interest — a print far larger than existing open interest usually means new positioning.
Flow on your own book
Inside Portfolio 360, the same flow data is filtered to the tickers you hold, so you see the unusual activity that actually affects your account instead of scrolling the whole tape.
Related guides
- The Rebel PlaybookA daily email that cross-references your holdings with options flow to produce day-trade, swing, long-term and hedge ideas.
- Rebel Intel: AI reviews, watch feed and chatHow the AI analyst reads your portfolio, what the watch feed flags and how to ask follow-up questions.
- Trade alerts and desk coverageHow alerts are published, what a coverage note contains and how to use Ask the desk.
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