What should I look at?
The most common question we get is not "what does this mean" — it is
"there are five screens, which one do I open?" This page answers that. Pick how you
trade, and it tells you the screen, the three fields to read in order, and the thing that
should make you walk away.
What this page is not. It does not tell you what to buy, when to
enter, or where to place a stop. We are not SEBI-registered and we do not publish tips. What
follows is which data answers your question — the decision
stays yours. Every number quoted below is measured from our own tape, including the ones that
do not flatter us.
1. Intraday — "what is moving right now?"
You are at the screen during market hours and want to know where size is landing.
1
Size, in ₹ crore. The feed is ranked by it. Anything under about
₹1 Cr on a stock is noise — there is always something trading.
2
Who crossed the spread. The card says whether the buyer or the
writer was in a hurry. If it says Direction Unclear, the quote was stale and
we could not read the side — that is not a soft signal, it is no signal.
3
Open interest change. Rising OI means a position is being opened. Falling OI
means someone is closing — the money is leaving, not arriving.
Walk away if: OI is falling. A large print on falling OI is an exit, and
it tells you nothing about what happens next. Also walk away if the card says Direction
Unclear — roughly 71% of large prints are not cleanly readable, and we would
rather show you that than guess.
What we cannot tell you: whether the underlying moves. We publish
which side was in a hurry; the side that crosses the spread also pays it.
2. BTST — "should I carry this overnight?"
You are looking late in the session and thinking about holding to tomorrow's open.
1
Repeat prints on the same contract. One big trade is an event. The same strike bought
again and again through the afternoon is a position being built — that is what our
accumulation label means.
2
OI still rising into the close. Positions opened late and held through the bell are
the only ones carrying overnight risk on purpose.
3
Does the stock agree? Open
Stock Positioning and
check whether the underlying moved the same way. Agreement is not proof, but disagreement is
worth knowing before you carry it.
Walk away if: the label is Short Covering or Long Unwinding.
Both are closing flow. Somebody is getting out before the close — that is the
opposite of conviction into tomorrow.
What we cannot tell you: the gap. Overnight risk is the entire BTST
trade and we do not model it — no options-flow dataset can. On our own expiry data a
418-point gap arrived with no warning in the tape the night before.
3. Swing — "who is positioned in this stock?"
You hold for days or weeks and want to know where the large money is leaning.
1
How many sessions agree. We only badge a stock bullish or bearish when at least
70% of its active sessions point the same way. A single loud session gets
early, not a verdict.
2
The rupee split. One side needs at least 1.3× the money of the other
before we call it a lean at all.
3
Does price confirm, or diverge? This is the field nobody else can show you. Every
other Indian platform builds its label out of price direction, so
"positioning bearish while the stock is up" is not something their data can express.
We show it as its own flag.
Walk away if: it says mixed. That is not us hedging — it
means the money genuinely went both ways and there is nothing to read.
What we cannot tell you — and this one matters: across every
flag we graded, the median option was down 44% to 66% five sessions later, and only about
one in five was higher. Positioning is a map of where money went, not a forecast of
where price goes. Anyone showing you only their winners is showing you a fifth of their data.
4. Expiry day — "where is everyone stacked?"
It is expiry and you want to see where the open interest has piled up.
1
Where OI is stacked. The chain shows the walls — the strikes carrying the most
open contracts above and below the current level.
2
Bought or written? This is the step almost everyone skips. A wall of calls built by
buyers and a wall built by writers look identical in an OI chart and mean
opposite things.
3
How far is it from spot? A strike 700 points away needs a move that big by 3:30, and
its premium is priced accordingly.
Walk away if: your only reason is that open interest is heavy.
Heavy calls does not mean bullish. That same OI is exactly what it looks like when
somebody is writing premium they expect to expire worthless.
What we cannot tell you: whether the crowded strike dies. We keep a
public tally — it currently sits at 60% versus a 43% matched control, which is
well inside the noise on the sample we have. We publish the running count every week rather
than the conclusion, including the weeks it goes against us.
The one rule under all four
Every route above ends at the same place: size, side, and whether open interest confirms
it. Size tells you it mattered. Side tells you who was in a hurry. OI tells you whether a
position was opened or closed. When all three agree you have a clean read. When they do not, we
say so rather than picking one — which is why "Direction Unclear" appears as often as it does.
If a card still does not make sense, the full label glossary is here:
How to Read a DaySwingTrader Card.
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