OptionsKing

Data methodology and metric definitions

Public stock and screening pages are dated informational snapshots of option chains. They are not live app results, executable quotes or recommendations.

Provider and capture time

Public captures come through the OptionsKing engine using Tradier market data. Each ticker page identifies the recorded provider and quote as-of date. Timestamps ending in Z use UTC. The file timestamp is shown separately from an individual ticker capture time where one was recorded. Older captures have no individual capture timestamp; partial refreshes can retain older tickers and hold the file date back to the oldest retained data.

App quotes are delayed. Capture time records collection, not exchange execution time. Prices, spreads and implied volatility can change before you read a page. Reloading a page does not refresh its snapshot.

Chain samples and eligibility counts

The ladder selects one out-of-the-money strike per expiration near the middle of the recorded delta band, subject to the capture's quote and liquidity checks. It is sampled from the informational chain separately from eligible proposals. A displayed contract may therefore be excluded from the app, including by earnings checks.

The in-band count records liquid out-of-the-money contracts in the capture's target delta band. The eligible count copies the engine's qualified count after eligibility checks, any market-regime filter and request filters, before final selection. Neither count records every contract scored, and ladder length is a separate sample count. These aggregate counts remain capture-time counts even when expired ladder rows are removed.

There is no fixed quality floor. Market conditions can tighten eligibility. The current app selects each ticker's best eligible proposal per strategy after filters, ordered by confidence score. The market-regime label describes capture-time conditions; older files did not record the actual regime filter separately for each side. Their file-level baseline cannot reconstruct that filter. The confidence score is not a probability of profit; its formula remains private.

A confirmed earnings report during a particular contract's life excludes that candidate. An expiry before the report can remain eligible. Confirmed earnings without usable dates trigger a broader window exclusion. An unresolved calendar is not an all-clear; additional eligibility restrictions can apply.

Public financial metrics

Models, costs and freshness

Pricing models simplify volatility, interest rates, dividends and price paths. European-style model estimates do not fully capture American-style early exercise, jumps, earnings gaps, execution costs or changing liquidity. Calculator examples omit fees, taxes and slippage unless explicitly included. Premium yield alone does not measure total return or downside.

Builds remove expired ladder rows, warn when the capture is more than 10 days old and stop publishing market figures after 30 days. Missing, invalid or unavailable captures leave educational guides with no prices, rankings or Dataset markup. Editorial modification dates do not refresh market data.

Primary references, checked October 17, 2026: OIC covered calls, OIC cash-secured puts, OIC Greeks and OIC exercise procedures. Publisher and editorial methods.