Overview of options flow data

How three investor cohorts trade options, and what our data says about their behaviour.

Introduction

Masscrest options-flow data covers January 2020 to July 2026, aggregated daily at the underlying by investor-cohort level. Every transaction is split into three cohorts: retail (self-directed traders on retail brokers), institutional (asset managers, hedge funds, proprietary desks, executed on behalf of a client), and inter-dealer (market makers hedging with each other). The sections below walk through how each cohort uses the options market and where its flow signature carries information.