Options Flow Order Types

‍InsiderFinance uses a proprietary method to identify the trade type and displays them in the dashboard in the Type column as shown above.

A block trade is a large, privately negotiated order between two parties. They are often done outside of the open markets (i.e. not through public auctions) as their size can cause large fluctuations in volume.

Due to their large size and method of execution (i.e. private negotiation), block trades are almost always made by institutional investors and large hedge funds through investment banks and other intermediaries (usually a blockhouse).

An Intermarket Sweep Order (also called a sweep-to-fill order) is a type of market order in which the same buyer splits a large order into many smaller orders that are “routed” across multiple exchanges simultaneously to be filled immediately.

They are printed to the tape as many small orders executed milliseconds apart.

• Split: sweep-to-fill orders filled on the same exchange
• Sweep: sweep-to-fill orders filled across multiple exchanges

Sweep trades indicate urgency in execution in that the buyer is prioritizing speed to fill over the lowest possible price.

A buyer uses a sweep trade when he or she wants to enter a position as fast as possible, presumably ahead of a large anticipated movement in the stock’s underlying price expected to happen very soon.

Because sweep trades are printed to the tape as many small orders, they aren’t easily noticed by other traders and stay under other traders’ radar.

However, many times those small trades add up to a very large order.

InsiderFinance’s proprietary method of identifying sweep trades uncovers the true size of sweep orders with unmatched accuracy.