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What You’ll Learn

How to use an Option Contract Chart panel, how to select a contract, and how to read the volume overlay alongside the candles.

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What It Shows

An Option Contract Chart is a live OHLC pane for one specific option contract. It is useful when you already know the strike and expiry you want to inspect and need detail without the surrounding chain. Each pane shows:
  • Live candles for that single contract
  • An overlaid volume histogram anchored to the bottom of the chart
  • A header with the contract’s latest bid, ask, last, and connection status
Candles build in real time from the trade tape. The header values refresh continuously while the market is open, so you can watch the spread tighten, widen, or skew toward one side as the underlying moves.

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Picking A Contract

Open the contract picker from the panel header and choose:
  • Underlying — the ticker, for example SPX or SPY
  • Expiration — the contract date
  • Side — call or put
  • Strike — the specific strike price
The panel loads the contract and starts streaming. To switch contracts later, reopen the picker — your indicator settings and pane size carry over. A few practical notes:
  • For 0DTE review, strikes close to spot usually have cleaner candles. Far-OTM contracts can look erratic because each trade is a larger percentage of the contract’s value.
  • To compare neighboring strikes, use the Chain Charts panel first, then open the strike that needs closer inspection.
  • Pair the contract chart with a Symbol Chart for the underlying so you can see what the option is reacting to.

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Volume Overlay

The volume histogram sits at the bottom of the chart, on the same time axis as the candles. Each bar is the contract’s traded volume during that candle’s interval. How to read it:
  • Tall bars on a directional candle — heavier participation behind that candle
  • Tall bars on a reversal candle — possible absorption or capitulation at that contract price
  • Thin bars on an extension — the contract is repricing on light flow
  • Volume gaps then a sudden spike — participation changed quickly, often after the underlying breaks a level
Volume on a single contract helps distinguish strike-level participation from chain repricing as the underlying moves.
Option volume can dry up fast on far-dated or far-OTM contracts. Thin volume plus a wide bid-ask spread is a liquidity warning; use the header quotes to understand the current spread before interpreting candle moves.