A markets terminal for active traders

What is a markets terminal: and who is it for?

A markets terminal is a single workspace that pulls the data and tools an active trader needs into one place: prices and charts, the options tape, the disclosures that move sentiment, research, and a read on the market's mood. The idea is not new. Professional desks have run on terminals for decades. Bloomberg terminals run $2,000 per month per user. FactSet and Refinitiv are institutional tools priced accordingly. Reuters Eikon requires an enterprise contract. For most retail and active traders, those are not accessible options, and even those who could afford the cost would find that institutional terminals are built for fundamentals analysts and fixed-income desks, not for options flow traders who need a scored view of the unusual tape alongside political and sentiment data.

RadarPulse brings the same one-screen idea to retail and active traders at a retail price. It is for the person who is tired of bouncing between a broker platform, a flow service, a government filings site, a financial news site, and a forum, and wants the whole picture in one view. Not just convenience: when you have to switch between five tools, you miss the connections between them. A congressional disclosure is just a number until you pair it with the options tape on the same name the same week. A Fear and Greed reading of 18 means something different when the unusual options flow is skewed heavily to calls. The terminal assembles those connections for you.

Who it is built for: active and swing traders who follow the options tape, day traders who want scored flow without reading raw order data, swing traders who incorporate political and institutional signals, anyone building research on individual names who wants a background read before committing capital. Below, each module has its own deep-dive guide. Follow the links to go further on any of them.

Unusual options flow

The core of the terminal. RadarPulse generates 15-minute-delayed options flow from the live tape and scores every trade 0 to 100 on four dimensions: volume-to-open-interest ratio, premium size, days to expiry, and aggressor side. The score is not a prediction. It is a measure of how unusual the trade is relative to what would be expected given the stock's normal options activity. A score of 90 means the trade ranks in the top 10% across all four dimensions simultaneously. A score of 50 means it is elevated on some dimensions but not all.

The Top 25 ranking surfaces the day's highest-scoring prints with three alert tiers: EXTREME (scores 85 and above), ELEVATED (70 to 84), and NOTABLE (55 to 69). Most options activity on any given day falls below 55 and does not appear in the ranked feed. What you see is the filtered output of the scoring system, not the raw tape.

Understanding what each scoring dimension captures helps interpret the output. Volume-to-open-interest ratio compares today's volume in a specific contract to the total existing open interest. A ratio of 10 or higher on a relatively illiquid contract means buyers are establishing a new position rather than trading existing inventory. Premium size weights trades by total notional value: a single trade with $500,000 in premium matters more than 10 trades with $10,000 each. Days to expiry applies a modifier that favors near-term contracts, where options buyers pay for urgency and theta decay works against them fastest. A buyer choosing a two-week expiry over a three-month expiry is accepting more time risk, which is a stronger signal of near-term conviction. Aggressor side identifies whether the trade was initiated at the ask (buyer-aggressive) or the bid (seller-aggressive), with buyer-aggressive trades scoring higher on calls and seller-aggressive trades scoring higher on puts.

No options flow scoring system eliminates false positives. A high score on a single trade may reflect a hedge against an existing equity position, a portfolio overlay trade by an institution, or a market maker filling a customer order on a structured product. The scoring identifies unusual activity. It does not decode intent. The appropriate response to a high-score print is research, not an immediate trade entry.

The most useful single-session pattern to watch for is score clustering on one ticker: multiple prints above 70 in the same name, across different strikes and expirations, within the same session. Isolated high-score prints appear constantly. Clustered high-score prints across multiple contracts in a name are rarer and worth more attention as a research trigger.

Read the full guide: unusual options flow →

Congressional stock trades

Under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, members of the House and Senate must disclose trades in individual securities within 45 days of execution. Those Periodic Transaction Reports are public record. The terminal ingests them and pairs each disclosed name with the live price and options tape so you do not have to cross-reference government portals and a trading platform separately.

The key limit of congressional disclosure data is the 45-day window. The transaction date and the filing date are different. A disclosure that appears in your tracker today reflects a trade that could be up to 6 weeks old. When using price data to analyze the trade, use the transaction date on the filing, not the date you read it. The stock may have moved significantly between those two dates.

The most actionable use of the congressional tracker is committee-assignment filtering. A senator on the Armed Services committee who purchases a defense contractor's shares is in a different informational position than a senator on the Agriculture committee buying the same stock. Committee membership is displayed alongside each trade in the terminal so you can make that judgment without separate research. The committee-sector mapping to keep in mind: Armed Services to defense; Banking and Financial Services to banks and fintech; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to pharmaceuticals and biotech; Energy and Natural Resources to oil, gas, and utilities; Intelligence to cybersecurity and satellite communications; Appropriations subcommittees to the specific sectors each subcommittee funds.

Dollar range brackets are the second major limitation of STOCK Act data. Trades are reported within one of eight brackets, from $1,001-$15,000 up to over $1,000,000. The actual trade size could be anywhere within the bracket. A "$100,001-$250,000" trade could be $100,001 or $249,999. Position size claims based on disclosed ranges should be treated with that uncertainty in mind. The pattern to focus on is whether the trade is large relative to the member's typical disclosure history, not the absolute dollar figure.

Academic research found that Senate portfolios outperformed market indices by approximately 12% annually in the 1985-2001 period. Post-STOCK Act research found that gap diminished significantly after 2012 when disclosure rules tightened. The tracker surfaces the public data for your own research and judgment. It does not imply that tracking any member's trades will replicate historical patterns.

Read the full guide: congressional stock trades →

Trump trades tracker

Presidential policy priorities create concentrated sector effects that persist across an administration. The Trump trades tracker maps the thematic exposures that policy action, deregulation, and executive order activity have historically elevated or depressed, and presents them alongside live options flow in those names.

The basket covers six primary sectors: Trump Brand and allied media entities, Energy (domestic fossil fuel production and pipeline infrastructure), Defense (contractors and weapons systems), Financials (banks and financial services affected by deregulation), Tariff-sensitive names (steel, aluminum, and domestic manufacturing that benefits from import restrictions), and Crypto (cryptocurrency-related equities and exchange-traded products). For each sector, the terminal shows constituent tickers, recent price performance, and how the options tape in those names aligns with the basket theme.

The primary discipline with the basket is recognizing that it provides structural context rather than a timing mechanism. Policy-driven sector moves tend to unfold over months, not days. A tariff announcement moves steel names in the first session; the full investment thesis from that announcement plays out over a multi-quarter period as implementation details, retaliatory measures, and supply chain adjustments become visible. The basket is designed for position-awareness and sector monitoring, not for generating discrete entry or exit signals on a specific day.

The basket also incorporates executive branch financial disclosures where available, providing context on the financial interests of the decision-makers alongside the policy actions their office takes.

Read the full guide: the Trump trade →

13F tracker

Every quarter, institutional investment managers with at least $100 million in assets under management must file SEC Form 13F, disclosing their long equity holdings as of the last trading day of the quarter. Those filings are public and appear roughly 45 days after the quarter ends, meaning the most current 13F you can access reflects positions held about 3 months ago, disclosed 6 weeks before you read it.

The terminal parses quarterly 13F filings and presents them as changes from the prior quarter: new positions (the fund opened this for the first time), additions (they increased an existing holding), reductions (they trimmed), and exits (they liquidated entirely). Each change shows the number of shares and the approximate dollar value at the quarter-end date, alongside the current price so you can see how the position has performed since it was reported.

Despite the lag, 13F data is useful for three specific purposes. First, it establishes duration conviction: a fund that has held a position through multiple consecutive quarters is expressing long-term thesis commitment, not a short-term trade. Second, it provides context for interpreting unusual options flow in a name: if a well-known institutional manager recently disclosed a large position in a company, elevated call activity in that name takes on different weight than it would in a name with no known institutional sponsorship. Third, it lets you identify which politically sensitive sectors large investment managers are building exposure to, which signals the institutional view on policy direction ahead of the public narrative.

The most informative cross-reference in the terminal is 13F data intersected with congressional disclosures. When both an institutional manager with known policy-access and a senator with relevant committee oversight are simultaneously increasing exposure to the same sector, the combined signal warrants more analytical attention than either one alone.

Read the full guide: 13F tracker →

AI equity research

Type a ticker and Vera, an AI research assistant built into the terminal, builds a structured, plain-English read on the business across 12 analytical lenses: competitive moat and sustainability, revenue and margin structure, valuation relative to peers and history, discounted cash flow model with explicit assumptions, balance sheet and debt analysis, management quality and capital allocation track record, insider ownership and recent Form 4 filings, red flags and accounting concerns, bear case thesis, bull case thesis, recent news and catalyst calendar, and technical levels worth monitoring.

The purpose of the 12-lens structure is to prevent confirmation bias. Generating only a bull case or only a bear case on a ticker produces research that confirms the framing you started with. Running through all 12 lenses, including the explicit red-flag and bear-case sections, forces the analysis to engage with the counterargument. For a swing trader doing 20 minutes of background work before entering a position, that structure is more useful than a summary paragraph that leads with the upside.

The research is built from public data: SEC filings, financial statement data, price history, news headlines, and industry benchmarking. It is not connected to private databases, analyst research, or any non-public information source. The AI synthesizes and interprets public information; it does not have access to anything a retail investor could not find independently.

Vera's output is educational context, not a trading recommendation. The research does not say "buy" or "sell." It lays out the analytical case on both sides, surfaces the key unknowns, and lets you decide. This distinction matters: an AI research tool that generates conclusions rather than analysis creates the same problem as a one-sided analyst note. The terminal's design philosophy is to give you faster access to the information, not to outsource the decision.

Read the full guide: AI equity research →

Fear & Greed Index

A single 0 to 100 read on whether the crowd is fearful or greedy, built into the dashboard so you can frame everything else against the market's current mood. The index synthesizes seven market indicators: price momentum (S&P 500 performance relative to its 125-day moving average), market breadth (McClellan Volume Summation Index), put/call ratio (5-day average of CBOE equity put/call ratio), volatility (VIX level relative to its 50-day moving average), safe-haven demand (treasury yield spread), junk bond demand (junk bond yield spread relative to investment grade), and market momentum (52-week highs versus lows on NYSE). Each indicator is equally weighted and normalized to a 0 to 100 scale.

Extreme Fear (0 to 25) historically precedes market recoveries more often than not, but it can also precede continued selling in a genuine bear market. Extreme Greed (75 to 100) historically precedes corrections more often than not, but bull markets can sustain elevated greed readings for months before reversing. Neither reading is a precise timing signal. A reading of 20 does not mean the market bottoms tomorrow. A reading of 85 does not mean you should sell everything.

The most useful application of the Fear and Greed reading is as a framing layer for everything else you see in the terminal. Options flow read differently at Extreme Fear versus Extreme Greed. A large call sweep when the index reads 80 is less unusual than the same trade when the index reads 15, because bullish positioning is consensus-consistent at 80 and contrarian at 15. The congressional disclosure of a defensive-sector purchase reads differently when the broader market is in Extreme Greed. The 13F data on institutional positioning has more interpretive weight when framed against a multi-month fear or greed trend. The index does not generate alpha on its own. It sharpens your interpretation of every other signal in the terminal.

Read the full guide: Fear & Greed Index →

Options paper trading

The highest-cost mistake a new options trader makes is learning with real money before they understand how options pricing works in practice. Premium decay (theta), strike selection for a directional bet, how quickly a position can go wrong when a catalyst does not materialize on time: these are concepts that are much easier to calibrate in a simulator than in a live account where every mistake has a dollar cost.

The $100K virtual wallet gives you a realistic sandbox: live-priced options, realistic spreads, a $100,000 starting balance that mimics what a small retail account might look like, and position tracking across multiple open trades. You can practice reading the flow, identifying a high-score print, pulling up the options chain on that ticker, selecting a strike and expiration, sizing the position, and managing it through to exit or expiration. None of that practice costs money.

The wallet works best when you use it alongside the live flow feed. The purpose of the paper trading module is not to run a virtual portfolio for its own sake. It is to build the muscle memory of connecting a flow signal to a research process to a trade entry, so that when you want to do that with real money, the mechanics are automatic and you can focus on the judgment call rather than the execution.

Read the full guide: free options paper trading →

All in one view

The point of a terminal is that the modules do not sit in isolation. They reinforce each other. The cross-module connections are where the analytical value is, and those connections are only visible when the data is assembled in one place.

A 13F holding becomes more interesting when the options tape lights up in the same name. A hedge fund disclosed a 3 million share position in a defense contractor last quarter. This week, that same name is generating EXTREME-tier flow on call sweeps with 14 days to expiry. Neither piece of information is independently actionable. Together, they suggest the institutional thesis is still active and the options tape is reflecting near-term urgency. That conjunction is worth 20 minutes of research on what might have changed in the name this week.

An AI equity research report lands differently when the Fear and Greed gauge is at an extreme. Vera's 12-lens report on a consumer discretionary name might identify strong earnings momentum and reasonable valuation. At a Fear and Greed reading of 12, that research sits in a context where the market is broadly selling risk assets. The bull case is structurally intact but the near-term entry timing looks different than it would at a neutral 50 reading. The terminal shows both data points simultaneously so you can integrate them without switching tools.

A congressional disclosure is easier to evaluate next to the live chart and options data. A senator's purchase of a pharmaceutical name appears in the tracker. The stock's unusual options flow shows NOTABLE-tier call activity with above-average Vol/OI on near-term contracts. The Fear and Greed index is at 22 (Extreme Fear). Three data points, three different sources, all suggesting the same direction on the name. That conjunction is the most useful output the terminal produces, and it only exists because the data is assembled in one view.

Cross-module signals are not a guarantee of direction. Options flow can be hedging. Congressional disclosures lag by 45 days. Extreme fear can continue deepening before reversing. The terminal gives you the data assembled faster than you could assemble it yourself. The interpretation and the decision remain yours.

A worked example: reading cross-module signals together

Tuesday morning, 9:45 a.m. The Fear and Greed Index opens at 28 (Extreme Fear). The options flow feed shows two EXTREME-tier prints on a mid-cap defense contractor: a call sweep, $350,000 in premium, strikes at 5% out of the money, expiring in 18 days. Vol/OI ratio of 14.3. Both buyer-aggressive.

You open the congressional tracker. A senator who sits on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee disclosed a purchase in this stock 11 days ago, in the $100,001-$250,000 bracket. You check the committee calendar: the Defense Appropriations subcommittee has a markup session scheduled for next Tuesday. You pull Vera's 12-lens report on the company. The moat section identifies a significant long-term service contract with a classified government agency. The catalyst section flags the markup hearing and notes the company's primary revenue exposure is to programs under the subcommittee's jurisdiction.

Four data sources. Same name. Same direction. Same time window. This is the kind of cross-module convergence the terminal is built to surface. None of these data points is individually a trade. The congressional disclosure is 11 days old. Options flow can be wrong. Markup hearings do not always move individual contractor stocks. But the confluence of a committee-relevant senator purchase, EXTREME-tier call flow, a scheduled markup, and an AI research report confirming the relevant exposure is a research case strong enough to spend time on. That research either confirms the thesis or reveals a reason to pass. Either way, you made the decision systematically rather than on a single data point.

Building a research workflow with the markets terminal

The terminal is most useful as a structured daily process rather than a tool you open only when you already have a trade idea. A systematic approach to reading the terminal separates traders who use data consistently from traders who use it reactively.

A practical pre-market routine: open the Fear and Greed Index first. Note the current reading and whether it has moved more than 10 points since the same time last week. That gives you the broad mood framing for everything else. Then check the overnight unusual options flow for any EXTREME-tier prints that appeared after market close or in the premarket session. Note the tickers, check their charts for any obvious catalyst (earnings, news, analyst action), and flag any that appear in your active watchlist. Then scan the congressional disclosure tracker for any PTRs filed overnight. Note committee assignments. Flag any that intersect with your watchlist names.

During the session: return to the flow feed every 30 to 60 minutes. Large sessions generate significant activity in the first 90 minutes and the final hour. The middle of the session is often the quietest for unusual flow. If a name from your pre-market scan generates additional EXTREME or ELEVATED prints during the session, that accumulation of intraday evidence is a stronger signal than a single opening print.

End-of-session review: check whether any of the session's high-score tickers are names where you have a pending research project from the 13F or congressional disclosure data. Update your watchlist. If a name appeared in institutional 13F data, had elevated flow today, and has an earnings event or congressional hearing on its sector within the next two weeks, put it at the top of your research queue.

Weekly: review the Trump basket performance and the 13F tracker for any new filings that processed during the week. Read the Vera report on any name that appeared in multiple data sources during the week. The terminal assembles the connections; the weekly review is where you act on them.

When to act on flow: the discipline most traders miss

The most common error when reading unusual options flow is treating a high score as an entry signal. It is not. A score of 90 means a trade is in the top 10% of unusual activity for that session. It means something out of the ordinary happened. It does not mean the stock is about to move in the direction the options imply.

The cases where flow-based conviction is higher: when the high-score print appears in a name with a known upcoming catalyst (earnings in 10 days, FDA advisory meeting in 2 weeks, NDAA markup hearing tomorrow), the options buyer may be positioning specifically for that event. The timing makes the trade more interpretable. When multiple high-score prints appear in the same name on the same day across different strikes and expirations, the breadth of activity suggests more than one participant establishing a directional view. When a high-score print occurs in a name that appeared in congressional disclosure data in the prior 30 days with a matching committee-sector connection, the conjunction of signals raises the research priority.

The cases where caution is warranted: a single high-score print in a low-float or illiquid name can reflect a single trader using a relatively small amount of capital to dominate the statistics. The Vol/OI ratio will look extreme but the absolute premium may be modest. When the absolute premium is below $75,000, be skeptical of how much institutional conviction the trade reflects regardless of what the score says.

The right response to any high-score flow signal: research, not reaction. Check the news. Check the options chain for more context. Check whether there is a known catalyst. Check the Fear and Greed reading. Check the congressional and institutional tracker for the name. Then decide.

Research in this context has a specific meaning. It is not open-ended exploration. It is a five-minute checklist: any pending earnings or FDA dates within the contract's expiry window, any news in the prior 48 hours that provides an obvious alternative explanation for the flow, any congressional disclosure in the name within the past 30 days, the current Vera research report for quick context on the company's primary revenue drivers and near-term catalysts, and the Fear and Greed framing. If all five checks point in the same direction as the flow, the trade meets the threshold for further position sizing work. If any of the five provides a clear alternative explanation, the flow signal loses conviction and the research process stops.

Frequently asked questions

Is the options flow data real or simulated?

The flow data is real, 15-minute-delayed options tape from actual market prints. On most plans, there is a 15-minute delay. Elite plans receive real-time data where available. The delay means a print appearing in your feed at 10:15 a.m. reflects a trade that occurred at 10:00 a.m. For the purpose of identifying unusual activity, a 15-minute delay is operationally adequate for all but the fastest event-driven strategies. The terminal clearly labels the delay level on your current plan so there is no ambiguity about what you are seeing.

How is the options flow score calculated?

The score is a composite of four dimensions: volume-to-open-interest ratio (compares today's activity to existing open contracts), premium size (total notional value of the trade), days to expiry (shorter-dated contracts score higher, reflecting urgency), and aggressor side (buyer-aggressive call and put prints score higher than seller-aggressive). Each dimension is normalized to a 0 to 100 subscale and the composite score is a weighted average. Exact weights are proprietary, but the methodology is explained in detail in the full options flow guide. The score is calibrated to surface the top 5 to 10% of trades as ELEVATED or EXTREME on a typical session.

How old is the congressional disclosure data?

The tracker reflects publicly filed Periodic Transaction Reports, which members of Congress can file up to 45 days after a trade is made. The tracker shows both the transaction date and the filing date on every record, so you can see exactly how old each trade is when you read it. The maximum delay between a trade and your ability to see it in the tracker is 45 days. The median in practice is closer to 20 to 30 days. This lag is the primary reason congressional data is more useful for building sector awareness than for near-term entry signals.

Can I use the terminal on mobile?

Yes. RadarPulse is a progressive web app optimized for mobile screens. The terminal layout adapts to mobile with a scrollable, card-based view of the modules. The flow feed, congressional tracker, Trump basket, and 13F data are all accessible on mobile. For active flow-reading sessions that require scanning the full tape quickly, a larger screen is more efficient, but the core research and tracking functions are fully functional on a phone.

What is the difference between the Markets Terminal and the Politics Terminal?

The Markets Terminal is the full product overview: all modules across the RadarPulse platform, including options flow, political trackers, institutional tracking, AI research, and sentiment. The Politics Terminal is a dedicated workspace that foregrounds the political and institutional intelligence modules (congressional disclosure tracker, Trump basket, 13F) alongside AI political-market analysis. The two terminals share data but are optimized for different use cases. The Markets Terminal is the broadest view; the Politics Terminal is for traders who primarily use political data as their primary analytical lens.

What tier is required for each module?

The Basic plan includes core options flow scoring and a limited view of the political tracking features. Pro adds full congressional disclosure data, the Trump basket, 13F tracker, and AI equity research. Elite adds real-time options flow, the cross-domain flow confluence panel, and priority data processing. Every tier includes the $100K paper-trading wallet and the Fear and Greed Index. The waitlist page has current plan details and pricing.

Is the AI equity research reliable?

Vera's research is built from public data sources: SEC filings, financial statements, price history, and news. The AI synthesizes that public information into the 12-lens structure. It does not have access to non-public data, analyst note databases, or proprietary research feeds. The output is as reliable as the public information it draws on. For established companies with extensive SEC filing histories and public financial data, the research quality is high. For very early-stage companies, SPACs, or names with limited public filing history, the research will be thinner and that limitation is noted in the output. Always cross-check any specific figure from the AI report against the primary source.

Does the terminal work alongside a broker?

Yes. RadarPulse is a research and intelligence layer, not a broker. You use it to identify, research, and evaluate ideas, then execute through your existing brokerage. The paper-trading wallet simulates trades inside RadarPulse but live orders go through your broker. The terminal is designed to sit alongside a broker platform, not to replace it. The flow feed, trackers, AI research, and sentiment index are all data inputs to the research process; they do not connect to a live trading account, do not send orders, and do not manage positions.

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