Option Samurai Review – Does This Platform Fit Your Trading?

Option Samurai

Option Samurai is a pared-down options scanner that focuses on user experience. In contrast to other options scanners, the interface is simplistic and easy to navigate, making it simple to find and sort options plays based on a variety of actionable filters. The program comes with a number of predefined scans for the most common options strategies and allows users to compose and save their own scans.

Option Samurai Pricing Options

Option Samurai has only one service tier that is billed monthly at $49 or annually at $450. The platform also offers a 14-day free trial for users to try out the scanner functions.

Options Scanner

The meat of Option Samurai is the options scanner, which allows users to scan for options based on different strategies and a number of filters.

Scan Filters

Composing an options scan starts with a strategy – most common options strategies, including advanced strategies such as spreads, iron condors, and long straddles, are available within Option Samurai. After that, users can quickly filter out potentially risky options based on a stock score, which is calculated on a scale of 1-10 based on a stock’s fundamentals. The implied volatility filter is also extremely useful since it is calculated as a standardized percentage such that a value of zero indicates that an option’s implied volatility is at its 200-day low and a value of 100 indicates that implied volatility is at its 200-day high. A volume filter is also available to filter out options that trade with low volume.

More advanced filters include those for setting a range of expiration dates and a range of percent differences between the current stock price and the strike price. Filters also allow users to choose the desired options price percentage change required to the breakeven price, to set a maximum possible loss in percentage or dollars, and to set parameters for spreads.

A full range of a filters similar to those found in most stock scanners is also available to screen for specific fundamental or technical data for the underlying stocks. There are close to 100 filters available that can be browsed through or searched, and no limit on the number of filters that can be applied to an options scan.

Perhaps most helpfully, all filters – both those specific to options and those that apply to the underlying stock – are thoroughly explained in the user interface. Hovering the mouse over an applied filter pops up a text box explaining how the filter functions, while all filters in the filter browser window are paired with a brief explanation.

Scan Results

Within the scan results, clicking on any ticker symbol will pop open a window showing fundamental information about the underlying stock as well as critical information about the option. In contrast to the standard options chain format, the data is presented in a graphical and well-organized tabular format to make it accessible. Clicking on any row in the scan results will generate a list of similar options trades for the same stock.

All scans produced within Option Samurai can be exported to a CSV for further sorting and analysis. You can analyze individual plays independently with tools like Chaiken Analytics if you so choose.

Saved and Predefined Scans

Any user-defined scan can be easily saved as a preset scan to be reused or modified later. There is no limit to the number of scans that can be saved, although there is currently no organizational structure to sort saved scans by name or type. In addition, Option Samurai has a list of predefined scans that are sorted by tags related to the options strategies that they employ and the amount of risk that they entail. These predefined scans are particularly useful for beginning options traders who can choose scans based on their probability and risk. However, note that many predefined scans may return few or no results as they are heavily filtered.

Option Samurai Platform Differentiators

Compared to other options scanners, Option Samurai is extremely minimalist. There are no advanced features for charting the underlying stocks and the filters are all designed to work around a strategy rather than around a specific stock. However, this approach makes the scanner extremely user-friendly compared to most options scanners and is ideal for finding options trades based on a specific strategy and risk-profit potential ratio. The ability to save an unlimited number of scans and the predefined scan list also contribute to making this a useful tool for finding potential options trades quickly and efficiently.

Is Options Samurai a Good Option for You?

Option Samurai is designed for options traders, but thanks to its user-friendly design and strategy-first focus the platform is ideal for beginners and experienced options traders alike. While advanced options traders may wish for more complex charting features and the ability to scan based on a custom strategy, Option Samurai makes it easy to quickly find potential options trades based on the most popular options strategies. The detailed descriptions of all filters and predefined scans also makes this tool particularly welcoming to less experienced options traders.

If you want a more advanced options scanner, check out our Market Chameleon review.

If you want guided options alerts, Motley Fool Options may be a good choice for you. If you prefer self-directed research, Options Samurai could be a good fit.

Pros

• Predefined options scans according to strategy, probability of success, and risk
• Numerous filters for custom scans, including filters for spreads, maximum loss, and underlying stock fundamentals and technical indicators
• Implied volatility is calculated as a standardized percentage for simplified interpretation
• Scan results make it easy to further investigate trades or to find similar trades for a specific stock
• Unlimited saved scans and simple data export to Excel

Cons

• Minimalist design makes it difficult to define scans for custom options strategies
• Predefined scans often have few or no results