RadarPulse: an OptionSonar alternative with a 0-100 flow score

What options flow scanners actually need to deliver

The core problem every flow scanner solves is the same: millions of options contracts trade daily and almost none of them are signal. The useful minority involves large premium, high volume relative to open interest, short-dated timing that suggests a catalyst bet, and aggressive sweep execution that suggests conviction. Any scanner worth using needs to surface exactly those prints and bury the rest.

Where scanners differ is in what they do with the signal once they've found it. Do they just list unusual prints, or do they rank them? Do they tell you why a trade is unusual, or just that it is? Do they show you what Congress and institutional funds own in the same name, so you can assess whether smart money is already aligned with what you're seeing in the flow? And do they help you research the name without leaving the tool? Those differences determine whether a scanner speeds up your process or just adds another tab to manage. Our full guide on unusual options flow covers the underlying signal if you're building your reading of it.

What RadarPulse delivers

RadarPulse is built around a scored feed plus institutional, congressional, and AI research layers in the same tool:

• A 0–100 unusualness score on every trade. Four factors, Volume/OI ratio, dollar premium, days-to-expiry, and aggressor side, are computed for every print and combined into a single score. High-score prints float to the top of the feed automatically; you don't have to mentally rank what you're seeing.
• A daily Top 25 with clear flags. The day's most unusual activity is collected into a ranked Top 25, each print tagged EXTREME, ELEVATED or NOTABLE so you scan labels first and drill into the strongest signals. The Top 25 is a daily digest you can work through in minutes.
• Whale detection. Block and sweep orders moving real size are surfaced with the aggressor side flagged, buying or selling, so you can distinguish institutional positioning from hedging in a single glance.
• Congress, Trump and 13F trackers. See congressional stock trades as they're disclosed, the Trump trades tracker, and 13F institutional holdings, all alongside the options flow. When a high-score sweep lands on a ticker, you can immediately check what senators and major funds own in the underlying.
• Radar (AI chat). A built-in AI markets assistant explains any ticker or print in plain English. Ask about the company, the position thesis, what the sweep might signal given the current news cycle, or what risk looks like on the trade.
• Vera (AI equity research). An AI equity-research desk that generates a structured fundamental analysis on any name in seconds. Use it after you've spotted unusual flow to do a quick fundamental check before entering.
• Free $100K paper trading + Academy. Practise reading and acting on flow signals in a $100K virtual wallet at zero cost, no card required. The built-in leaderboard lets you track returns against other traders anonymously.
• Breaking news banner. A real-time banner surfaces market-moving headlines and synthesises live index conditions into a plain-English market reading, so you know whether a sweep is landing in a risk-on or risk-off environment without switching to another tab.

A factual feature comparison

The table below describes RadarPulse's capabilities in detail. For the OptionSonar column we only note what's widely and publicly known; verify current OptionSonar features and pricing on their own site rather than rely on this characterisation of a competitor.

"See their site" means we're deliberately not stating another company's specifics, verify current OptionSonar features and pricing on their own site.

RadarPulse pricing

Clear and flat. Two things are free forever; the scored scanner sits on paid tiers with a trial so you can test it first.

• Basic: $12/mo, with a 14-day free trial. Scored scanner, daily Top 25, whale detection, Congress and 13F trackers on 15-minute-delayed flow.
• Pro, $29/mo. More headroom for active users, saved filters, more alerts, cross-device sync.
• Elite, $59/mo. Adds the real-time tape for traders reacting inside the same minute.
• Free forever: $100K paper trading + Academy + leaderboard. No card required, practise, learn, and compete at zero cost.

Flow is 15-minute delayed on every tier except Elite. Full breakdown at the pricing page.

Which should you pick?

OptionSonar is an established flow scanner; compare it directly on its own terms. RadarPulse is worth evaluating if you want a transparent 0-100 score on every print (not just a list of detected sweeps), a ranked daily Top 25 with explicit severity flags, Congress and institutional context in the same view as the flow, AI chat and equity research built in, and a low entry price with a real trial. If understanding why a print ranked high matters as much as finding it, the disclosed scoring approach helps you build that intuition over time. For new traders, start at the Learn hub or try our guide to the best free options flow scanner.

OptionSonar: what it does and who it's for

OptionSonar is a real-time options flow scanner built around unusual options activity detection. Its core proposition is simple: monitor the options tape and surface trades that look abnormal against the backdrop of a stock's normal volume and open interest, then alert users quickly so they can evaluate the activity before the window closes. The company has been operating in the options flow intelligence space for several years and occupies the cleaner, more focused end of the market, a deliberate product positioning choice rather than an oversight.

The feature set reflects that focus. OptionSonar provides real-time unusual options alerts, a clean interface with pre-configured alerts organized by ticker, historical flow lookup so users can scroll back through past activity on a name, and basic filtering controls that let you refine the alert stream by premium size, expiry date, or ticker. The interface is intentionally approachable, there's minimal configuration overhead and the core workflow (see alert, look up ticker, evaluate) is fast. Traders who have tried more complex multi-panel scanners and found them overwhelming often gravitate to OptionSonar precisely because it does not demand upfront configuration before the first alert fires.

OptionSonar is positioned for traders who want a fast, low-friction unusual activity alert system without deep configuration. If you know which tickers you follow and want to be notified when something unusual moves through the options tape on those names, that workflow maps well to how OptionSonar is designed. The pre-configured ticker alerts in particular suit traders who run a focused watchlist of 20-50 names and want the platform doing the monitoring work rather than requiring them to build filter sets manually.

Their pricing has historically ranged from approximately $49 to $100 per month depending on the plan tier and billing cycle, though you should verify current pricing on their own site, subscription pricing changes and we will not misrepresent a competitor's current structure here. What is clear is that OptionSonar sits in the mid-range of the options flow scanner market, below the enterprise pricing of some institutional-oriented platforms and above the very low end of the market.

What OptionSonar does not branch into is the surrounding intelligence layer. The platform focuses on the core use case of unusual options activity detection and does not include political disclosure data (Congressional trading, OGE filings, policy basket tracking), AI assistants or AI equity research capabilities, multi-signal confluence tracking that combines options flow with dark pool prints and congressional positioning simultaneously, or a ranked scoring system that places each print in context against every other print from the same session. For traders who need the alert layer and nothing else, that narrowness is a feature, a simpler surface area means less learning curve and less noise. For traders building a broader intelligence picture around the flow, those absences mean supplementing OptionSonar with additional tools and managing the workflow across multiple tabs and subscriptions.

Scoring methodology: ranked context vs. raw alerts

The most consequential technical difference between OptionSonar and RadarPulse is how each system handles the question of unusual-ness itself. OptionSonar surfaces unusual options activity as alerts, a print crosses a threshold (high relative volume, significant premium, or similar), and the system flags it. The output is a categorized list: these prints are unusual today.

RadarPulse adds a scored, ranked layer on top of that detection step. Every single options print receives a 0-100 unusualness score computed from six weighted components:

• Vol/OI ratio (40% weight). Volume relative to open interest is the heaviest factor. A contract printing 80 times its open interest is a categorically different signal than one printing at 1.2 times OI, and the score reflects that gap proportionally rather than just flagging both as "unusual."
• Premium size (30% weight). Raw dollar premium committed to the position. A $4 million sweep carries a different level of institutional conviction than a $40,000 trade regardless of other factors, and the score weights this directly.
• Execution type (10% weight). Whether the trade executed as an aggressive multi-leg sweep, typically a signal of urgency and directional conviction, or as a negotiated block, which can indicate hedging or structured positioning rather than a directional bet.
• Aggressor side (10% weight). Whether the order was filled at or above the ask (buyer aggressor) or at or below the bid (seller aggressor). Buyer aggression on calls or seller aggression on puts tends to have stronger directional implications.
• Days to expiry (5% weight). Short-dated contracts (under 30 days) near-expiry sweeps imply near-term catalyst expectations; longer-dated LEAPS suggest longer-term positional plays. The score weights the former more heavily given the implied urgency.
• Time of day (5% weight). Trades placed in the first 30 minutes of the session or in the final 30 minutes carry different informational weight than mid-session prints. Opening sweeps often front-run catalysts; closing sweeps are sometimes part of end-of-day institutional rebalancing.

These factors are computed for every print and combined into the 0-100 score. The score components are visible per print inside RadarPulse, you can see exactly why a trade scored 87 versus 41, which factors drove the high score, and what would have needed to be different for it to rank lower. This transparency lets you build intuition about what the scoring model actually values over time, rather than accepting an opaque flag.

The Top 25 leaderboard automatically ranks the day's highest-scoring activity. Every print in the Top 25 carries an EXTREME, ELEVATED, or NOTABLE severity tag so you can scan severity labels before reading details. The practical difference is meaningful during high-volume sessions: OptionSonar tells you "this is unusual"; RadarPulse tells you "this is the 8th most unusual print of the day and here is exactly why it ranked there." When you are processing a busy session with dozens of flagged prints, that automatic ranking eliminates the manual judgment call on each alert individually. You work the list from the top rather than triaging a flat stream.

Multi-signal intelligence: beyond the options feed

OptionSonar focuses on the options tape. RadarPulse treats the options feed as one input into a broader cross-domain intelligence picture, adding several additional signal layers that operate alongside the flow data in the same interface.

The Congressional trading tracker surfaces STOCK Act disclosures from every House and Senate member within 45 days of the trade date, which is the legally mandated reporting window. When you see unusual options flow on a defense name and can immediately check that three sitting senators added positions in the underlying stock in the past two weeks, that co-occurrence has meaning that the options flow alone does not carry. The tracker covers both chambers, shows the politician, their committee assignments, the stock, the trade type, and the disclosed date range, the full disclosure record rather than a curated subset.

The Trump trade tracker follows the policy basket using OGE financial disclosures and the publicly disclosed holdings of the Trump family across investment vehicles. For traders who watch policy catalysts, energy, defense, tariffs, financial regulation, the tracker adds a political positioning layer alongside the options activity. When unusual call sweeps arrive on energy stocks in the same week that policy signals on drilling permits appear, seeing both the options flow and the disclosed political positioning in one view is a materially different workflow than checking each source separately.

Dark pool print data adds institutional block-trade context to the equity side. Large off-exchange prints that move significant notional often precede options activity in the same name or confirm directional positioning already showing up in the flow. Having both layers in the same feed means you can spot confluence without toggling between subscriptions.

The confluence model, when unusual options flow, congressional positioning, and dark pool activity all align on the same name or sector, is a multi-signal approach that is unavailable in single-feed tools by definition. A scanner that reads only the options tape can find the unusual sweep. It cannot tell you whether institutional equity positioning, congressional ownership, and derivatives conviction are all pointing the same direction simultaneously. For traders who follow political catalysts such as defense budget votes, energy policy shifts, tariff announcements, or financial regulation changes, the political data layer adds a signal dimension that options flow alone cannot provide and that no amount of filtering within a single-feed scanner can replicate.

The 13F tracker adds the institutional equity ownership layer. Funds managing over $100 million in assets are required to disclose their equity holdings quarterly through SEC Form 13F. RadarPulse surfaces those disclosures alongside the options flow so you can check whether major funds like Tiger Global, Coatue, or D.E. Shaw were building or unwinding positions in the underlying stock in the most recent reporting quarter. An unusual call sweep on a name where multiple top-tier funds increased their equity stake last quarter carries different weight than the same sweep on a stock where institutional ownership is declining. That context is available in the same tool without switching to a separate 13F research platform.

These trackers are available on RadarPulse's paid tiers. All tiers can cross-reference Congress and 13F institutional ownership data against any unusual print you find in the flow. Join the waitlist to access the full multi-signal feed when RadarPulse launches.

AI capabilities: Radar and the research layer

RadarPulse includes two AI research capabilities that OptionSonar does not offer. They are built as research tools for the workflow that follows flow detection, once you have spotted an unusual print, these tools help you evaluate whether the underlying opportunity makes sense before you act.

Radar is RadarPulse's AI market assistant. It answers natural-language questions about any ticker using live market data: current price and intraday action, recent news, earnings dates and recent results, analyst price targets and rating distributions, and options concepts. Ask Radar "what happened to this stock this week?" and it surfaces the recent price action and news in plain language. Ask "explain this sweep" and it contextualizes the print against the stock's current situation. Ask "when does this company report earnings?" and it returns the date without requiring a tab switch to a calendar site.

Radar is woven into the flow interface rather than sitting in a separate chat window. When you click on an unusual print, Radar is available immediately in context, you do not have to copy a ticker, switch applications, and re-enter the question. For traders who identify a name through unusual flow and need quick context about the business model, the near-term catalyst calendar, or the recent earnings trend, that in-context access eliminates the friction of the standard five-tab research workflow.

Radar's responses are grounded in live market data rather than static training knowledge. It does not answer questions about current events from a months-old snapshot. The underlying architecture pulls live data at query time, which means when you ask about today's price action or this week's news, the answer reflects current conditions.

Vera is RadarPulse's AI equity research assistant, available to Elite subscribers. Where Radar handles quick in-context questions, Vera generates structured, multi-lens fundamental analysis on any name. A Vera report covers business model summary, recent financial performance, competitive positioning, catalyst calendar, key risks, and a sentiment synthesis across recent analyst coverage. For a trader who has spotted a high-scoring unusual sweep and wants to do a rapid fundamental check before sizing a position, Vera condenses research that would otherwise take 20-30 minutes into a structured report generated in seconds. The output is a starting point for research, not a replacement for it, but as a first-pass fundamental screen before committing to a deeper dive, the speed advantage is real.

OptionSonar does not include an AI assistant of either type. That is not a criticism, building AI research infrastructure is a separate product bet, but it means any research work you do after spotting flow in OptionSonar happens outside the tool. RadarPulse's design choice is to close that workflow gap so the transition from "find the signal" to "evaluate the opportunity" happens inside one interface. Join the waitlist to be notified when Radar and Vera access opens.

Pricing comparison

Understanding the pricing difference between the two platforms requires comparing both the monthly cost and what is included at each tier.

OptionSonar's pricing has historically been positioned at approximately $49 to $100 per month depending on the plan tier and billing cycle. Verify their current pricing on their own site, we will not speculate on a specific competitor figure that may have changed.

RadarPulse pricing at launch:

• Basic, $12 per month. Scored options flow scanner with the 0-100 unusualness score on every print, daily Top 25 with EXTREME/ELEVATED/NOTABLE flags, whale detection, Congress and Trump trackers, 13F institutional holdings, Radar AI assistant, and a 14-day free trial. Flow is 15-minute delayed.
• Pro, $29 per month. Everything in Basic plus live streaming flow, expanded alert quota, saved filter sets, cross-device sync, push notifications to mobile, earnings calendar integration, and enhanced charting. Flow is 15-minute delayed.
• Elite, $59 per month. Everything in Pro plus the real-time OPRA tape for traders who need to react within the same minute, Vera AI equity research, and priority data access. This is the real-time tier.
• Free forever: Academy, $100K paper wallet, and leaderboard. No card required. The paper trading wallet lets you practise acting on unusual flow signals without committing real capital. The Academy covers options flow fundamentals, reading the score, and developing a systematic process. These never expire regardless of subscription status.

At the Pro tier ($29 per month), RadarPulse includes live streaming flow, the full Top 25 leaderboard, Congress and Trump trackers, push alerts, earnings calendar integration, Radar AI, and enhanced charts. That feature breadth at $29 per month is wider than what OptionSonar's entry plans have historically covered at a higher price point, though, again, verify their current plans directly rather than relying on this characterization.

The free tier is worth dwelling on separately. The Academy is a structured curriculum covering options flow fundamentals: how to read the options tape, what Vol/OI ratios mean in practice, how sweep execution differs from negotiated block trades, how to combine flow signals with earnings calendars and sector context, and how to build a systematic evaluation process rather than reacting impulsively to every alert. For newer traders, this is the educational foundation that turns a scanning tool from an alert stream into a research methodology. The $100K paper trading wallet lets you act on your read of unusual prints with simulated capital, track the results, and compare performance on the leaderboard against other paper traders anonymously. Neither requires a credit card and neither expires.

There is one additional migration detail worth noting for existing OptionSonar subscribers: RadarPulse accepts CSV imports from OptionSonar data exports with automatic column detection. If you export your historical flow lookups from OptionSonar and import them into RadarPulse, the scoring engine will apply the 0-100 score to that historical data so you can retroactively rank past sessions against RadarPulse's methodology. This means you can evaluate how RadarPulse's scoring would have ranked the unusual activity you were already watching in OptionSonar, without canceling your existing subscription first. The comparison gives you concrete evidence about whether the ranking approach changes which prints you would have prioritized on any given session, a more informative evaluation than a feature checklist alone. Join the waitlist and request early access to test the import flow.

Who belongs on each platform

Both tools are legitimate options for traders tracking unusual options activity. The right choice depends on what you need from the scanner and how it fits into your broader research process.

Use OptionSonar if:

• You want a clean, minimal unusual activity alert system with a simple, focused interface and low configuration overhead.
• Alert speed is your primary criterion and you are optimizing for being notified of unusual activity as quickly as possible after the tape prints.
• You do not need political disclosure data, Congressional trading, OGE filings, policy basket tracking, alongside your options flow, and your trade research does not rely on cross-referencing political positioning with market activity.
• You prefer a single-purpose tool and handle your fundamental research, news monitoring, and earnings calendaring in separate dedicated applications that you are already proficient with.
• You follow a focused watchlist rather than scanning the full market and want the alert stream pre-configured around specific tickers without building your own filter sets from scratch.

Use RadarPulse if:

• You want scored and ranked unusual activity rather than a flat alert list. The 0-100 score with disclosed factor weights lets you triage a busy session by ranking rather than by scrolling, and the Top 25 condenses the day's most significant activity into a single ranked digest.
• You want Congress, Trump, and institutional 13F data alongside your options flow. The confluence of political positioning and options activity is a distinct research angle that single-feed tools cannot replicate, and for traders who watch policy catalysts closely, this layer adds a dimension worth having in the same interface.
• You want an AI assistant, Radar, for quick in-context ticker research. Being able to ask about business models, catalyst calendars, recent earnings trends, or options concepts without switching tabs reduces the friction between spotting a signal and understanding it.
• You prefer a lower price point with broader feature coverage. RadarPulse Pro at $29 per month covers more feature categories than OptionSonar's historical entry pricing while undercutting it on cost.
• You want to evaluate RadarPulse's scoring methodology against your existing OptionSonar flow data before fully switching. The CSV import with auto column detection makes that test possible without a subscription commitment.
• You are newer to options flow and want the free Academy and $100K paper wallet to build process and intuition before trading with real capital.

For traders who are newer to options flow, the platform choice matters less in the first few months than the process you build around it. Neither OptionSonar nor RadarPulse replaces the foundational work of understanding what unusual options activity actually signals, how often it is noise versus genuine institutional positioning, and what risk management framework you apply before acting on any print. RadarPulse's Academy and paper wallet exist specifically to support that learning process before real capital is at stake, and because they are free with no expiration, you can use them in parallel with any other scanner you are already running rather than treating the tool choice as an all-or-nothing commitment. The scored methodology is a tool for building intuition about what the strongest signals look like over time; the paper wallet is where you test whether your read of those signals translates into results before sizing real positions.

The tools are not mutually exclusive during an evaluation period. OptionSonar's alert speed can complement RadarPulse's scoring context, some traders use a fast alert system to identify candidates quickly and a scored system to rank and evaluate them before acting. If you are currently using OptionSonar and are curious whether RadarPulse's ranked approach would change how you prioritize prints during a session, the CSV import path makes a side-by-side comparison feasible without a hard cutover. Join the RadarPulse waitlist to secure access when the platform launches.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good alternative to OptionSonar?

OptionSonar is an options flow scanning platform. RadarPulse is an alternative built around a transparent 0-100 unusualness score computed from four disclosed factors on every trade, Volume/OI, premium, days-to-expiry, and aggressor side, so every print is ranked on what flow traders actually weigh. It also includes a daily Top 25 with EXTREME/ELEVATED/NOTABLE flags, whale detection, Congress and 13F trackers, AI chat, AI equity research, and a free $100K paper-trading wallet.

How does RadarPulse rank unusual options flow?

RadarPulse computes a 0-100 unusualness score using four factors: volume relative to open interest, dollar premium, days to expiry, and aggressor side (sweep vs. block). These factors are disclosed and visible per print, you can see exactly why a trade scored 85 versus 40. High-score prints automatically surface to the top of the feed and into the daily Top 25.

How much does RadarPulse cost?

RadarPulse Basic is $12/mo with a 14-day free trial. Pro is $29/mo, Elite is $59/mo. The $100K paper-trading wallet, leaderboard, and Academy are free forever with no card required. Flow is 15-minute delayed on every tier except Elite, which adds the real-time tape.

Is RadarPulse's options flow real-time?

RadarPulse generates its own real options flow on a 15-minute delay on every paid tier, workable for studying unusual activity, building watchlists, and identifying institutional positioning. Real-time tape is available on the Elite tier for traders who need to react inside the same minute.

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