It will take you longer to read this explainer than to execute the strategy once you've learned it.
Sometimes when you login to BigShort, you know what you want to trade. But what about the other times? You have some time, you want to make some money. But you’re not sure where to look.
Here we share a tried and true way to screen for strong stock trades in 5 min or less. Let's get to it.
💡 Tip: First off, and this is important, we suggest NOT trading if there isn’t a clear trade to take. More money has been lost by bored traders than by almost any other method in history. Don’t force it.
But before giving up for the day, BigShort makes it super easy to find other trading ideas you might have overlooked.
First Step - Check the Dashboard tab
On the dashboard tab (pink box, above) you'll find:
Left - Top 10 NOFA - the cumulative measurement of Net Options Flow activity
Center - Top 10 Positive MomoFlow or Smartflow - toggle between the two on the top right of the page by clicking the gear (blue box, above)
Right - Top 10 SE - stocks with the highest short exempt volume
These show you real time insight into what tickers have heavy activity - these are great trading ideas. To dive into each ticker, just click and you'll be taken to the SF Segregated tab with that ticker loaded up, ready to analyze and trade if the signals support it.
Second Step - Check the OptionFlow tab
On the OptionFlow tab, you'll find:
A list of the major options trades going on in the market right now
The ticker, the details, the size, the direction (bullish, neutral, or bearish)
Across the top, you'll also see a readout of the current state of the options market.
There is simply no better way to sift through large options activity in the stock market than the BigShort OptionsFlow tab.
Here you can quickly see what the big trading shops are up to, what stocks they're playing with, how aggressively, and, by clicking on the ticker, you can immediately dive deeper and identify if a trade is on.
Many BigShort traders spend their day watching OptionFlow and using big moves as an impetus to trade.
Third Step - Check DarkFlow
On the DarkFlow tab you'll find:
A list of the top 100 tickers by Dark Pool volume
Whether those trades have been bullish or bearish
Detail on recent Dark Pool trades (find this by clicking on the tickers)
Quickly seeing which tickers have the highest Dark Pool activity, gives BigShort traders immediate insight into what the big money traders are focused on trading off the lit exchanges—Great fodder for finding good trades!
BigShort Makes it Easy
BigShort makes it super easy for traders to find new trading ideas. Follow the three step process above, to quickly get new trading ideas, then dive into the ticker via SF Segregated to plan your exact entry.