Optionscanner's credit spread screen runs every candidate through the same gates: a volatility premium floor, a short-strike delta band, an expiration window, liquidity on the short strike, a credit-to-width floor, an earnings check and placement against the recent trading range. Every threshold is a setting you can read and change, and a rejected candidate is logged with the gate it failed and the number it failed by.
A screener narrows a universe of stocks and option chains to the spreads that pass a set of written conditions. For credit spreads those conditions usually cover four things: is the volatility being sold rich, is the short strike far enough away, can the spread be traded at a fair price, and is there a scheduled event inside the trade. The output is a shortlist, not a decision; which spreads to place stays with the trader.
The defaults below are the auto trading agent's starting values. Each one is a setting, shown on screen, that you adopt as your own rules and can change.
| Gate | Default | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|
| Volatility premium (NVRP) | at least 0.10, implied volatility 10% above realized | sells volatility only when it is priced above what the stock delivers |
| Short-strike delta | 0.15 to 0.25 | places the short strike where the market prices roughly one-in-five odds or less of finishing in the money |
| Days to expiration | 25 to 50 | enough time value to sell, short of the final weeks when gamma grows fastest |
| Short-strike open interest | at least 500 | a market deep enough to exit |
| Short-strike daily volume | at least 50 | contracts actually trading today |
| Bid-ask width | at most 20% of the mid | keeps the cost of getting in and out a small share of the credit |
| Liquidity score | at least 20 of 100 | one combined read of depth, activity and quote width |
| Credit-to-width | at least 0.20 | the spread is paid enough relative to its worst case |
| Earnings | no expiration spanning the report | keeps a known gap risk out of the trade |
| Placement | short strike outside the recent trading range, in expected-move units | the strike has room relative to how fast the stock actually moves |
The direction comes from the stock's signal and the volatility regime: a bullish signal on rich or neutral premium selects a bull put spread, a bearish one a bear call spread, as the strategy selection methodology lays out.
It is logged with the exact gate it failed and the number it failed by, rather than silently dropped. Over weeks that log shows which rule rejects the most candidates, which is how a threshold that is too strict, or too loose, becomes visible.
A defined one, by design: the S&P 500 morning scan, the tickers you add to your own list, and the strongest names from the day's scan, read from your own brokerage's live data feed. It does not search every optionable stock in the market. A market-wide scanner finds more candidates; a narrower, liquid universe is easier to trade and to monitor. The category guide describes the market-wide tools.
The spread is drawn on a price chart with its breakeven and probability cone, and if it is placed, the open position is checked against exit rules you adopt: a profit target as a fraction of the credit, a loss stop as a multiple of it, and a time exit before expiration week. The reasoning behind those defaults is in when to close a credit spread, and the credit spread calculator works through any spread's numbers by hand.
A screener narrows a universe of stocks and option chains to the spreads that pass a set of written conditions. For credit spreads those conditions usually cover four things: is the volatility being sold rich, is the short strike far enough away, can the spread be traded at a fair price, and is there a scheduled event inside the trade. The output is a shortlist, not a decision; which spreads to place stays with the trader.
The defaults below are the auto trading agent's starting values. Each one is a setting, shown on screen, that you adopt as your own rules and can change.
It is logged with the exact gate it failed and the number it failed by, rather than silently dropped. Over weeks that log shows which rule rejects the most candidates, which is how a threshold that is too strict, or too loose, becomes visible.
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