Tradytics Signals: what they are and what each pattern means

Signals are real orders from the live options flow that match one of seven flow patterns we tested on years of flow and what the contracts did afterwards. When an order matches, the signal is simple: buy the same contract the flow bought, at the ask. Every signal shows the order behind it, stays on the page after it fires, and is tracked to expiry. You'll find them at Signals in the menu.

What is a signal?

A signal is one print from the tape. Someone bought a specific call or put, and that order matched a pattern: the same contract bought again and again, a single order as big as everything already open, calls arriving in a burst on a strong day. The signal is that contract, at the ask it traded against when it fired. No spreads to rebuild, no strikes picked by a model. You see exactly what was bought and why it matched.

Why patterns from flow instead of AI picks?

An AI pick is an opinion. It can be well written and still have nothing under it, and a confidence score is a number the model gives itself. A flow pattern is a fixed rule, tested on past sessions against what the contracts actually did at real prices, and kept only if it held up on months it was never fitted to. Most of what we tested didn't. The seven that survived are the ones you see.

The rules are frozen. A language model writes each signal's short note from its facts, and that is all it does: it never picks the trade.

How is a signal tracked?

• Return is the contract's latest mark against the ask paid when it fired.
• Best is the highest it has been marked since.
• Marks come every 5 minutes through the session, at the midpoint of the bid and ask.
• At expiry it settles at what the option was worth at the close, and Return becomes final.

Losers stay on the page with the winners. Filter to expired signals and you see every one, as it finished.

The flow behind each signal

Open a signal and its page shows the order that fired it, in context: this contract's prints so far that day, the same ticker's flow in the 15 minutes before, and the index flow for signals that ride it. A chart tracks the contract since it fired. If you want to dig further, the ticker's options and dark pool research pages are a click away, and the AI analyst will answer questions about it.

Free vs Plus and Pro

Plus and Pro see every signal live, as it fires. On Free, the latest session's signals stay locked until the next session opens at 9:30 AM New York time: you see that they fired, their pattern and how they're doing, and the contract stays hidden. Everything older is open in full. Plans are in Tradytics pricing.

The seven patterns

Repeat flow

The same at- or out-of-the-money contract bought for the seventh time in a session, making up much of the ticker's flow, with little sold against it. One buyer, or a crowd, saying the same thing over and over.

Opening calls

A single call order about as large as the contract's whole open interest, at the stock's usual implied volatility, in a calm stock. That reads as a fresh position being opened, not a hedge being rolled, and nobody paid up for volatility to get it.

Heavy calls

A call on a low-priced stock trading several times its open interest in one day, at normal implied volatility. Most of that volume is new money, arriving in size without chasing.

ETF repeat

In-the-money ETF calls bought at the ask, on a contract that was also bought in recent sessions. Someone adding to a position day after day.

ITM puts

Puts already in the money, bought at the ask on a high-priced stock. In-the-money puts are expensive and move closely with the stock, so this is a deliberate bearish bet, or a hedge big enough to matter. It is the one pattern built on puts alone.

Call burst

Bullish premium in one stock running at several times its normal pace over 15 minutes, on a day the market is up, after a modest gain the session before. Buyers leaning into strength.

Index tide

Calls bought in a single stock while SPY, QQQ and IWM see heavy one-way bullish flow in the same 15 minutes. The stock is riding a market-wide wave of call buying, and among those calls the ones with the tightest spreads are picked. These come in batches on strongly one-sided days.

What a signal is not

It isn't an exit plan: a signal tells you what was bought, and Return and Best show what happened next. It isn't a spread or a position size. And the most a bought option can lose is what you paid for it, so read the ask before anything else. The full rules for each pattern are in the seven patterns behind Tradytics Signals, and the research is in how Tradytics Signals are built.