OptionsKing vs Option Alpha
Option Alpha automates options trades through your broker. OptionsKing does not connect to a brokerage account at all, and never will. If you want bots that enter and exit positions while you sleep, Option Alpha is the product. If you want a scored shortlist you place yourself, keep reading.
These two get compared a lot and they are barely the same category. One is an execution platform. The other is a decision filter that stops at the decision.
| OptionsKing | Option Alpha | |
|---|---|---|
| Places trades | Never. No broker connection exists. | Yes, through TradeStation, Charles Schwab, Tradier and tastytrade. |
| Backtesting | None. | Yes, and it is the good part of the product. |
| Strategies | Premium selling only: covered calls, cash-secured puts, the wheel. | Broad, including spreads, iron condors and 0DTE. |
| Price | Free. | Pro runs $149 a month, or $99 a month if you pay for the year up front. Two broker promotions drop that to $0 a month if you keep a qualifying balance: $5,000 at Tradier, $10,000 at TradeStation. |
| Refuses to show weak setups | No. It lists them highest score first and shows you the top few. | Ranks by expected value rather than withholding. |
Pricing and features for Option Alpha were read off their own site on August 4, 2026. Prices move, and plans get renamed. Check the current number with them before you spend anything on the strength of this page.
What Option Alpha does better
Automated execution. Bots enter and exit positions against rules you write, without you at the screen, and the backtester behind them is the real thing rather than a toy. If your problem is that you keep forgetting to close a position at 50 percent, or that you cannot sit at a screen during the day, that is a real problem and OptionsKing solves none of it. Option Alpha does. A 30-day trial, no card needed.
What OptionsKing does differently
Not by withholding. Every candidate strike gets a deterministic confidence score from 0 to 100, and the list runs from the highest score down. Return doesn't move that order; it's a separate number on the card and a filter you can set. There is no minimum, so a bad week gets listed from best to worst like any other. What you get is the score on every card, an 84 in green or a 52 in red, so you can see when the top of a thin list is a weak trade and act accordingly.
That is the disagreement in one line. Option Alpha's trade ideas are ranked by expected value, so there is always a top of the list. A ranked list always has a first item even when every item on it is a trade you should skip.
The other half is the ledger. The app records what you actually collected on the trades you told it you took, including the ones that went badly, and reports the real number against what you would have made just holding the shares. Most tools in this category stop at the idea. Whether the idea worked is the only question that pays you.
Where OptionsKing is weak
It is new. Both apps are in the stores, both listings are new, and the review counts say so. It covers 60 tickers on the public data pages, not five thousand. It does one strategy family, premium selling, and it has nothing to say about spreads, calendars, or anything you would put on in a directional bet.
And the bar cuts both ways. On the first public snapshot, taken in a dead-flat low-volatility tape, not one strike across all 60 names cleared it. Zero. A screener with a looser bar would have handed you a full page of ideas that week, and some of them would have worked out fine.
Against that, Option Alpha is a mature platform with real automation and a backtester with years of work in it. If your account is large enough that $99 a month rounds to nothing and you want the mechanics handled, this comparison is not close.
Pick this way
- You want positions managed while you are at work. Option Alpha. Nothing on this site does that.
- You place a handful of premium trades a month by hand and keep second-guessing the strike. OptionsKing.
- You trade spreads and condors. Option Alpha. OptionsKing does not price them.
- You will not connect a broker to a third party under any circumstances. OptionsKing cannot, which for some people is the entire feature.
Questions people actually ask
Can OptionsKing place trades like Option Alpha bots do?
No, and there is no plan for it. OptionsKing never connects to a brokerage account, never places an order, and never cancels one. It hands you a scored shortlist and you decide.
Is Option Alpha worth $149 a month?
If you will actually run bots, probably yes, because nothing else at that price automates entry and exit against your own rules across TradeStation, Charles Schwab, Tradier and tastytrade. If you are going to place four covered calls a month by hand, you are paying for an engine you never start.
Which one is better for the wheel?
Option Alpha can automate the mechanics of a wheel. OptionsKing will not run it for you, but it will refuse to show you a leg that fails its checks, and it tracks the cost basis across the cycle. Different jobs.
Related calculators
Facts about Option Alpha on this page came from their own site on August 4, 2026. Nothing here is a claim about how their product will perform, and nothing here is investment advice. See the disclaimer.