Learn — TickerStream · TickerStream

Dashboard cards

The dashboard shows the top 20 most-watched stocks across all TickerStream users. Each card displays:

Symbol	The ticker, e.g. AAPL or TSLA.
Price	The last traded price, updated live during market hours via WebSocket. Shows — before the first tick is received.
Change %	Percentage change from the previous close. Green = up, red = down. Only shown when real-time data is available.
Vol	Today's trading volume from the market snapshot. Shows how active the stock has been this session.
Watchers	How many TickerStream users have this stock in their watchlist. Higher watcher count = more community interest.

Clicking a card takes you to the full stock detail page for that symbol.

Stock detail page

The stock page has five indicator cards beneath the chart: RSI, EMA Signal, MACD, BB Position, and VWAP. These cards always reflect the timeframe you are currently viewing. Switch from 1M to 1D and the values will change — because the underlying data changes.

RSI (14)	A momentum score from 0–100. Above 70 means the stock may be overbought; below 30 may be oversold.
EMA Signal	Compares a fast and slow EMA. Bullish ↑ when the fast EMA is above the slow EMA; Bearish ↓ when it is below.
MACD	A trend-following indicator (12/26/9). Bullish ↑ when the MACD line is above its signal line; Bearish ↓ when below.
BB Position	Shows the lower and upper Bollinger Bands (20-period, 2 std devs). Useful for seeing how wide or tight recent price volatility is.
VWAP	Volume-Weighted Average Price for the current bar. The price level where the majority of today's trading volume has occurred. Click to overlay it on the chart.

The cards on the 1D chart tell you about today's intraday momentum — is the stock moving fast right now, this morning? The cards on the 1M chart tell you about the multi-week trend — has the stock been in a broader uptrend or downtrend over the past month? It is normal — and expected — for them to disagree. A stock can be in a daily downtrend (1M bearish) while bouncing strongly intraday (1D bullish).

Chart & timeframes

The chart is powered by TradingView Lightweight Charts. You can switch between two views:

1D	Intraday view. Each candle = 1 minute of trading. Covers the last 3 calendar days (~2 full trading sessions) for context, with live updates during market hours. Use this to watch intraday momentum — the same view a day trader watches.
1M	One-month view. Each candle = 1 full trading day. Shows ~60 calendar days of daily bars. Use this to see the bigger trend — whether the stock is in a multi-week uptrend, downtrend, or consolidating.

Which should you use? Think of it like zoom levels. The 1M chart shows you the forest; the 1D chart shows you the trees. Most traders check the 1M chart first to understand the trend, then switch to 1D to find a precise entry or exit point.

Example — day trading AMD:

Open the 1M chart first. Is the stock in a downtrend for the past month? Are both EMA and MACD bearish? If yes, you know you are swimming against the current — day trades against the trend carry more risk.
Switch to the 1D chart. Watch for an intraday EMA crossover (9-min crossing above 21-min) combined with RSI coming off oversold. That is your potential entry signal — the stock is bouncing within the session.
Use the Support levels on the 1D chart as your stop-loss reference. If price drops back below the nearest support, the bounce is likely failing.
Use the Resistance levels as your target. If the next resistance is only 0.5% away and you are risking 1%, the trade is not worth it.

The classic approach is called top-down analysis: use the higher timeframe (1M) to determine the bias — only look for long trades if the trend is up, short trades if it is down — then use the lower timeframe (1D) to time the entry. Trading with the trend on the 1M chart significantly improves the odds of a 1D trade working out.

Important: the indicator cards below the chart (RSI, EMA, MACD, BB) recalculate automatically based on the timeframe you are viewing. A bullish EMA signal on 1D means the 9-minute EMA crossed above the 21-minute EMA — an intraday move. The same signal on 1M means the 9-day EMA crossed above the 21-day EMA — a much stronger, slower-moving trend shift.

The horizontal dashed lines on the chart are Support (green, below price) and Resistance (red, above price) levels. See the section below for how they are calculated.

Chart indicator overlays

Each of the five indicator cards below the chart is clickable. Clicking a card toggles that indicator's overlay directly onto the chart. Click again to hide it. An active card shows a highlighted ring border.

EMA Signal	Overlays two EMA lines on the price chart. The 9-day EMA is green (fast), the 21-day EMA is red (slow). When the green line crosses above the red, that's a bullish crossover. When it crosses below, bearish.
BB Position	Overlays three lines on the price chart: an upper band (blue), a lower band (blue), and the 20-day SMA middle band (gray dashed). Price tends to stay within the bands ~95% of the time.
RSI (14)	Opens a sub-pane below the price chart showing the RSI line (violet). A red dashed line marks 70 (overbought) and a green dashed line marks 30 (oversold).
MACD	Opens a sub-pane showing the MACD line (blue), signal line (orange), and a histogram (green bars when positive, red when negative). The histogram represents the gap between the MACD and signal lines.
VWAP	Overlays a dotted orange line on the price chart showing the Volume-Weighted Average Price. On the 1D chart this acts as an intraday benchmark — price above VWAP is considered bullish, price below is bearish.

EMA, BB, and VWAP overlays share the same price scale as the candlestick chart. RSI and MACD open in their own separate sub-panes with independent price scales, so their values don't distort the main chart.

Support & Resistance

Always calculated from 30-day daily bars

Support is a price level the stock has historically struggled to fall below — buyers tend to step in around that price. Resistance is a level it has struggled to break above — sellers tend to appear.

TickerStream uses a swing high / swing low algorithm:

For every daily bar, look 3 bars to the left and 3 bars to the right.
If that bar's high is greater than all 6 surrounding bars → it's a swing high (resistance candidate).
If that bar's low is less than all 6 surrounding bars → it's a swing low (support candidate).
Levels within 0.5% of each other are merged to avoid chart clutter.
Levels above the current price are classified as resistance; levels below are support. Up to 5 of each are shown.

A former support level that price falls through automatically becomes resistance (and vice versa) — the algorithm reclassifies them relative to the live price.

RSI — Relative Strength Index

Settings: 14-period · Wilder smoothing

RSI measures how fast and how much a stock's price has been moving, on a scale of 0 to 100.

Above 70	Overbought — the stock has risen quickly and may be due for a pullback.
30 – 70	Neutral — no strong momentum signal in either direction.
Below 30	Oversold — the stock has fallen quickly and may be due for a bounce.

The formula compares the average gains vs. average losses over the last 14 periods. A reading near 100 means nearly all recent candles closed up; near 0 means nearly all closed down.

RSI alone isn't a buy/sell signal. A stock can stay overbought for weeks during a strong trend. Use it alongside other indicators.

EMA — Exponential Moving Average

Settings: 9-day (fast) vs. 21-day (slow)

A moving average smooths out price noise so you can see the underlying trend. A Simple Moving Average (SMA) weights all days equally. An Exponential Moving Average (EMA) gives more weight to recent prices, so it reacts faster to new moves.

TickerStream compares a fast EMA (9 days) to a slow EMA (21 days):

Bullish ↑	The 9-day EMA just crossed above the 21-day EMA. Short-term momentum is accelerating upward.
Bearish ↓	The 9-day EMA just crossed below the 21-day EMA. Short-term momentum is slowing or reversing.
Neutral	No crossover on the most recent candle. The trend is already established in one direction.

When you click the EMA Signal card to toggle the overlay, the chart draws the 9-day EMA in green and the 21-day EMA in red. A bullish crossover is the moment the green line rises above the red line. A bearish crossover is when green falls back below red.

MACD — Moving Average Convergence Divergence

Settings: 12 / 26 / 9

MACD is a popular trend-following momentum indicator. It consists of three parts:

MACD line	12-day EMA minus 26-day EMA. Positive = short-term trend is above long-term trend.
Signal line	9-day EMA of the MACD line. Acts as a smoother trigger for crossovers.
Histogram	MACD line minus signal line. Shows the gap between them — larger bars = stronger momentum.

The card on the stock page shows whether a crossover just happened:

Bullish ↑	MACD line crossed above the signal line — momentum turning upward.
Bearish ↓	MACD line crossed below the signal line — momentum turning downward.
Neutral	No crossover on the most recent bar.

MACD crossovers on daily bars can lag by a few days. They're better used to confirm a move already underway than to predict the exact turning point.

Bollinger Bands

Settings: 20-period SMA · 2 standard deviations

Bollinger Bands show how volatile a stock is. There are three lines:

Middle band	20-day Simple Moving Average of closing prices.
Upper band	Middle + 2 standard deviations. Price touches here when the stock is unusually high relative to recent history.
Lower band	Middle − 2 standard deviations. Price touches here when unusually low.

The BB Position card shows the lower and upper band values. When the bands are wide apart, volatility is high. When they squeeze close together, volatility is low — which often precedes a sharp move in either direction (a "Bollinger Squeeze").

Statistically, about 95% of price action falls within the bands. A close outside the upper band signals an unusually strong up-move; outside the lower band, an unusually strong down-move.

VWAP — Volume-Weighted Average Price

Intraday benchmark · Resets at market open each day

VWAP is the average price a stock has traded at throughout the day, weighted by volume. A trade that moved 1 million shares carries far more weight in the average than one that moved 100 shares. This makes VWAP a more realistic picture of where the "true" average transaction price has been, rather than a simple midpoint between high and low.

On the chart it appears as a dotted orange line that starts each trading day fresh and accumulates throughout the session. Unlike EMAs, VWAP is not a trend-following indicator — it is a reference level.

Price above VWAP	Bullish intraday bias. Buyers have been in control — the average participant is sitting on a profit. Institutions often use VWAP as a minimum benchmark: if they are long and price is above VWAP, they are beating the average.
Price below VWAP	Bearish intraday bias. Sellers have been in control — the average participant who bought today is underwater. Dip buyers may look for entries near VWAP as a mean-reversion target.
Price crossing VWAP	A cross above VWAP (especially on rising volume) is a common intraday bullish signal used by day traders. A cross below is bearish. The crossover is more meaningful when accompanied by increased volume.

VWAP resets at market open every day, so it is only meaningful on the 1D intraday chart. On the 1M (daily bar) chart the VWAP line still appears but represents the volume-weighted average for each individual daily bar — less commonly used by traders, who typically look at daily EMAs instead.

Who uses VWAP?

VWAP is especially popular with institutional traders (funds, market makers) who use it as a benchmark to evaluate execution quality — "did I buy at a better or worse price than the average today?" Large orders are often sliced up and executed throughout the day to achieve a VWAP or better fill. Retail day traders use it as a support/resistance level: stocks that open above VWAP and hold it are in a strong intraday uptrend; stocks that reclaim VWAP after dipping below it often continue higher.

Reading the signals together

No single indicator is reliable on its own. Here are a few examples of how traders combine them:

Potential bullish setup

· RSI recovering from below 30 (was oversold, now bouncing)
· EMA Signal turns Bullish ↑ (9-day crosses above 21-day)
· MACD turns Bullish ↑ (confirms momentum shift)
· Price bouncing off a Support level on the chart
· Price reclaims VWAP (on the 1D chart — buyers back in control intraday)

Potential bearish setup

· RSI above 70 and starting to fall (overbought, losing steam)
· EMA Signal turns Bearish ↓
· MACD turns Bearish ↓
· Price rejected at a Resistance level on the chart
· Price falls below VWAP and fails to reclaim it (on the 1D chart)

The more signals that align, the stronger the case — but nothing is guaranteed. Always consider position size and your own risk tolerance.

Options Analytics page

Every stock detail page has an Options button in the header that takes you to a dedicated analytics page powered by live Polygon.io options data. The page loads the full options chain and computes four analytics on the server:

Unusual Activity	Contracts where today's volume is at least 3× the open interest AND volume exceeds 500. These are statistically unlikely to be routine hedging — someone is making a new directional bet.
Put/Call Ratio	Total put OI divided by total call OI for expiries within the next ~2 months. A low ratio means more call buyers (bullish sentiment); a high ratio means more put buyers (bearish/defensive positioning).
Max Pain	The strike price where all option buyers collectively lose the most dollar value at expiry. Market makers who sold those options are delta-hedged to minimize payouts, so price often gravitates toward this level as expiry approaches.
IV Rank	Where today's implied volatility sits within its own 52-week range (0% = at the yearly low, 100% = at the yearly high). High IV Rank means options are expensive relative to history; low IV Rank means they are cheap.

Unusual Activity

Threshold: volume ÷ open interest ≥ 3× AND volume ≥ 500

Open Interest (OI) is the total number of contracts that exist and have not yet been closed — it represents existing positions. Volume is how many contracts changed hands today. Under normal conditions, daily volume is a small fraction of OI.

When volume is 3× or more of OI, it usually means a large new position is being opened — not just existing holders rolling around. This is referred to as unusual options activity or smart money flow.

Vol/OI ratio	How many times today's volume exceeds existing open interest. A 10× ratio on 2,000 contracts is more significant than a 3× ratio on 500.
IV column	The implied volatility of that specific contract. Very high IV on an unusual call = the market is pricing in a big move up.
Delta column	How sensitive the contract is to a $1 move in the stock. Delta near 0.5 = ATM; near 1.0 = deep ITM; near 0.1 = far OTM.

Large unusual activity in a far-out-of-the-money strike (low delta, cheap premium) can signal a speculative bet on a large move — sometimes ahead of earnings or news. Activity near the current price (high delta) is more likely a directional hedge or swing trade.

Combining with stock indicators

Unusual call buying + 1M EMA Bullish + RSI not yet overbought = confluence that a move higher may be anticipated by informed traders. Unusual put buying + MACD Bearish = bearish confluence. Never act on flow alone — context matters.

Put/Call Ratio

Near-term expiries only · Based on open interest

The PCR measures market sentiment by comparing how many put contracts exist versus call contracts for the next ~2 months of expiries. TickerStream uses open interest (total existing positions) rather than volume, so it reflects the overall positioning of the market — not just today's trades.

< 0.7 (Bullish)	Far more call OI than put OI. Participants are positioned for upside or own the stock and are selling calls against it.
0.7 – 1.0 (Neutral)	Roughly balanced. No strong directional lean in the options market.
> 1.0 (Bearish)	More put OI than call OI. Participants are hedging downside or speculating on a drop. Above 1.2 is considered notably bearish.

PCR is a contrarian indicator at extremes. A very high PCR (everyone is buying puts, everyone is scared) can actually signal a market bottom — because when everyone who wants to sell has already sold and hedged, there are few sellers left. Similarly, a very low PCR in a stretched rally can signal complacency near a top. Use it as one input, not a standalone signal.

Max Pain

Also called: Options Pain Theory · Max Pain Strike

Max Pain is the strike price where the largest total dollar amount of options contracts (both calls and puts combined) would expire worthless. In other words, it is the price at which option buyers lose the most money — hence "maximum pain for buyers."

How it is calculated

For each strike price S on the chain, we calculate:

Call pain at S — for every call with a lower strike K, those calls would be in-the-money at S, costing call writers (S − K) × OI × 100.
Put pain at S — for every put with a higher strike K, those puts would be in-the-money at S, costing put writers (K − S) × OI × 100.
Sum call pain + put pain for every strike. The strike with the lowest total = max pain (writers pay the least = buyers lose the most).

The bar chart on the Max Pain tab shows this total for every strike. The amber bar is the max pain strike.

Max Pain is most useful in the final week before a monthly expiry, when market makers are actively delta-hedging their books. Their hedging activity (buying stock when price falls below max pain, selling when it rises above) creates a gravitational pull toward the max pain strike. Far from expiry (weeks away), this effect is weak — other forces dominate.

Practical use

Price above max pain (Gap negative)	Market makers are short calls above that level and buy stock to hedge → supportive of the stock. A negative gap means current price is above max pain — there's gravitational pull back down toward it.
Price below max pain (Gap positive)	Market makers are short puts below that level and sell stock to hedge → pressure on the stock. A positive gap means current price is below max pain — there's gravitational pull up toward it.
Price at max pain (Gap near zero)	The equilibrium zone. Near expiry, price often "pins" at or near the max pain strike as competing hedge flows balance out.

The Gap shown on the summary card is simply max pain strike minus current price. A positive gap means the stock is trading below max pain (pull upward). A negative gap means it is trading above max pain (pull downward). This is not the options Greek "delta" — it is purely a price distance.

IV Rank

IV Rank = (current IV − 52W low) ÷ (52W high − 52W low) × 100

Implied Volatility (IV) is the market's expectation of future price movement, expressed as an annualised percentage. An IV of 60% means the market is pricing in roughly ±60% annual moves on the stock. Higher IV = more expensive options.

The problem with raw IV is that a 60% IV on SOFI (a volatile fintech stock) might be completely normal, while 60% on a blue-chip utility would be extreme. IV Rank solves this by normalising current IV against its own history.

IV Rank > 80%	Options are expensive relative to the past year. This is the ideal environment for selling premium — covered calls, cash-secured puts, credit spreads.
IV Rank 20% – 80%	IV is in a normal historical range. No strong premium edge either way. Focus on direction.
IV Rank < 20%	Options are cheap relative to history. Good for buying options (straddles, debit spreads) ahead of an expected catalyst, since you're paying below-average premium.

TickerStream calculates IV Rank from the ATM (at-the-money) implied volatility snapshotted daily after market close. The card shows — (insufficient data) until at least 5 trading days of history have accumulated for that symbol.

IV Rank tells you whether options are cheap or expensive today. It does not tell you which direction the stock will move. Combine IV Rank with the directional signals from the stock page (EMA trend, MACD, support/resistance) for a complete picture: direction from the stock page, volatility edge from IV Rank.

Example workflow: SOFI earnings week

IV Rank = 85% → options are unusually expensive → favour selling, not buying.
Put/Call Ratio = 0.45 (Bullish) → market is positioned more toward calls.
Unusual Activity tab shows a large call sweep 2 strikes OTM → possible institutional directional bet.
1M EMA and MACD are both Bullish → trend is up.
Decision: sell a cash-secured put at the nearest support level — collect the inflated premium, let theta decay work for you, and be willing to own the stock at that level if assigned.

Using indicators for options trading

The stock chart indicators (RSI, EMA, MACD, Bollinger Bands) complement the Options Analytics page by providing direction, timing, and strike selection. Here is how each piece maps to a real options decision.

Buying options (calls & puts)

When you buy an option you need to be right about direction and timing — the move has to happen before expiration. Use the indicators to improve both:

1M EMA + MACD Bullish	Trend is up over the past month → bias toward buying calls, not puts.
1M EMA + MACD Bearish	Trend is down → bias toward buying puts.
1D RSI oversold + EMA turning Bullish	Intraday momentum is reversing upward → potential entry for a short-dated call (0DTE or 1-2 day expiry).
1D RSI overbought + EMA turning Bearish	Intraday momentum is fading → potential entry for a short-dated put.
Support level on chart	Good strike anchor for a call — buy a strike near or just above the support level the stock is bouncing from.
Resistance level on chart	Good strike anchor for a put — buy a strike near or just below the resistance the stock keeps failing at.

Selling options (premium / theta decay)

When you sell options (covered calls, cash-secured puts, credit spreads) you want the stock to stay away from your strike. The indicators help you pick strikes that are unlikely to be reached:

BB Position (wide bands)	High volatility — option premiums are expensive, great time to sell. Wide bands mean the stock has been moving a lot, inflating IV.
BB Position (narrow bands / squeeze)	Low volatility — premiums are cheap. Avoid selling; a breakout could blow through your strike.
Resistance level	Sell a covered call at or above the nearest resistance. The stock has historically struggled to break through — your call is likely to expire worthless.
Support level	Sell a cash-secured put at or above the nearest support. If the stock drops to support, buyers typically step in and you keep the premium.
RSI above 70 (overbought)	Stock may be due for a pullback — good time to sell a call spread above the current price.
RSI below 30 (oversold)	Stock may bounce — good time to sell a put spread below the current price.

A practical workflow

Open the 1M chart and check EMA + MACD. This gives you your directional bias for the week.
Check BB Position on the 1M chart. Wide bands = elevated IV = premiums are fat. Narrow bands = IV is low = buying options is cheaper but selling is less rewarding.
Note the nearest Support and Resistance levels on the chart. These are your strike reference points — sell above resistance (calls) or below support (puts).
Switch to the 1D chart and watch RSI + EMA for timing. If you want to sell a put, wait for RSI to dip toward oversold on the 1D chart before entering — you get a better premium and the stock is more likely to bounce away from your strike.

The 15-minute data delay matters for options. Because TickerStream runs on a delayed feed (Starter plan), the prices and indicators you see are 15 minutes behind real-time. For day-trading short-dated options (0DTE) this delay is significant — always confirm the live price in your broker before entering a trade. For swing trades and premium selling with weekly or monthly expiries, the delay has minimal impact on your strike selection decisions.