My Complete Setup for Trading Options in ProRealTime v13

This is the video so many of you asked for: a complete tour of the whole setup I use in ProRealTime v13 to trade options. Not just the indicators — also the screener I use to look for stocks, how I link the tabs with the options chain and what exactly I look at before opening any trade. Everything in detail.

The watchlist bar: your key assets at a glance

At the top of the platform I have the tickers I follow daily set up. They’re not always the same, but these are usually the fixed ones:

• S&P 500 future — the pulse of the US market
• Oil future — energy and macro
• VIX — the S&P 500’s volatility
• Micro Gold (/MGC) — curiously it has more volume than the mini, so I prefer to follow this one
• Chinese large-cap ETF — it’s always good to keep an eye on the other big economy

These tickers give me a quick snapshot of how the market is breathing before I look at anything else.

The main chart’s indicators

Three weighted moving averages

I have three weighted moving averages set up on periods of 25, 75 and 200. They’re weighted averages — neither simple nor exponential — because they’re the ones that best fit the candle closes, especially on the S&P 500 future. This is a matter of taste and depends on the underlying, but they work very well for me.

The moving averages don’t predict the future, but they serve as reference levels where the price tends to react. And when they coincide with other indicators, the signal is reinforced.

Volume Profile and point of control (POC)

The Volume Profile can be a slightly annoying indicator if you leave it on with all the bars, because it distorts the candles. That’s why I use it in two ways:

• Just the POC (point of control) — those little marks that indicate the price level where the most volume was traded in each session. They’re points the price tends to fill
• Manual Volume Profile — using ProRealTime’s drawing tool, you select a date range and it draws the volume profile only in that zone. Much cleaner

Probability cone

This indicator exclusive to version 13 has become one of the ones I use most. It draws a fan on the chart that shows, based on current volatility, the first, second and third standard deviation — that is, the zones where it’s statistically likely the price will end up by a given date.

Open Interest by strike

On the left side of the chart I have open interest by strike set up, which is also exclusive to v13. It can be filtered by expiration and shows where there are massive concentrations of open contracts — those walls of institutional money that act as magnetic supports and resistances.

An important detail: I don’t only look at the open interest of the expiration I’m going to trade, but also that of other expirations with a lot of volume. This gives a more complete perspective of where the money is positioning itself.

The indicators at the bottom

Put/Call ratio

It measures the volume of puts versus calls. It’s a contrarian indicator: when it’s very high (a lot of put buying, a lot of fear), the market tends to do the opposite — it bounces. I don’t rely too much on it as a main signal, but I do keep an eye on it especially when earnings dates approach, to gauge sentiment before the event.

Wilder indicator (ADX/ATlas)

I use one of Wilder’s indicators to detect moments of congestion and volatility expansion. When it’s below the zero line, it indicates that the underlying is congested — there’s little movement. This is interesting for option-selling strategies, where we want the price to stay still. If it spikes, it alerts that a strong trend is coming.

Implied volatility and IV Rank

Two complementary indicators that can never be missing. The raw implied volatility tells us the current level, and the IV Rank (implied volatility rank) contextualizes it by comparing it with the last 52 sessions.

If the IV Rank is above 50, volatility is higher than usual for that underlying and premiums are inflated — a good time to sell options. If it’s low, we collect less premium but the trade is calmer — which is exactly what we look for as sellers: consistent premiums, without noise.

Volume and ATR

I have them set up mostly because the ProScreener needs them. They’re not indicators I look at constantly, although the ATR can be useful occasionally to calculate exit levels.

Workflow tricks in ProRealTime v13

There are two v13 features that seem small but completely change the trading experience:

• Asset tabs — you can have several underlyings saved in tabs and switch between them with a single click, keeping all the indicator settings
• Chart-options chain link — if you set the main chart and the options chain as linked, every time you switch assets on the chart, the options chain updates automatically with the expiration and strikes of the new underlying. Zero extra clicks

This saves a huge amount of time when you’re reviewing several assets in a row from the screener.

The ProScreener: finding stocks to trade options

The ProScreener is an automatic filter that looks for stocks that meet conditions you define. The conditions I use are fairly simple:

• Stocks with enough liquidity — that have high trading volume
• A reasonable minimum price — we discard stocks at 3, 4 or 5 dollars because they usually have little options liquidity
• Visible sector column — essential to diversify and not always end up with tech stocks in the portfolio

When you click on any screener result, the chart with all the indicators and the linked options chain opens automatically. In a matter of seconds you can assess whether that asset is worth a trade.

A practical example: analyzing Oracle

To see the whole setup in action, let’s go with Oracle. This is how the complete analysis process works:

• Select expiration — we look for the monthly one around 30-44 days. In this case, the 44-day one
• Check earnings — we mark a vertical line on the expiration day to see if there’s any earnings in between. If there is, it’s a reason to discard or at least rethink the trade
• Review open interest — we see where there are big concentrations of puts and calls. On Oracle there’s a lot of put volume at the 145 strike, which indicates people are protecting themselves at that level
• Check volatility — Wilder’s indicator is spiking and the IV Rank is above 72%, so volatility is high and premiums are juicy
• Read the probability cone — at the March 20 expiration, the three key levels are approximately 130, 143 and 157 dollars (first, second and third deviation)
• Check deltas — a put at the 130 strike has a delta of 0.20, which indicates only a 20% probability that Oracle reaches there

The more information of this kind you put in your favor, the more likely the trade is to work out. Earnings, dividends, open interest, probability cone, IV Rank, deltas — it all adds up. Don’t trade recklessly.

Complete setup checklist

Conclusion

This setup isn’t a cure-all nor does it claim to be — you can still take it much further. But it is a very solid base of what you need to look at firsthand before opening options trades. Version 13 of ProRealTime has added tools like the probability cone, open interest by strike and the predefined strategies that make the work enormously easier. Once you have it set up, everything is saved and ready to use every day. The difference between trading with this setup and trading by only looking at whether the candle is green or red is abysmal.