Research

Who gets Research

Research is part of SmartStrikes Pro. On Lite, the tab is still there but shows what the Scanner and Watch List do, with an Upgrade to Pro button.

On Pro, Research runs on your connected Tastytrade account. Without Tastytrade it runs on your own Alpaca key, and a strip across the top says "Scanning on your Alpaca key". IV Rank, earnings, liquidity and your Tastytrade watchlists come only from Tastytrade, so the scores leave those out, and the built-in SmartStrikes list is the one to scan.

The tab has a menu on the left with Watch List, Scanner and Settings, a shortcut to Settings → Research.

Choosing a watchlist

Both views work on the list chosen in the Watchlist drop-down. It offers:

• SmartStrikes, always first, with a small lock icon and a line under it. It's the built-in list of every ticker SmartStrikes grades, in alphabetical order. The lock means it's fixed: SmartStrikes keeps it up to date, and you can't add or remove tickers. When a ticker is added to or removed from grading, the list follows on its own, usually within a week.
• Your Tastytrade watchlists, from your connected account. Edit them in Tastytrade, then press Refresh here.

The app remembers your choice, and Watch List and Scanner always share it. On a new device the SmartStrikes list fills in after the app's first grades sync.

Watch List

Watch List puts every stock in the list in one table:

Exposure adds up your open positions in the stock across every account the app knows about, connected and imported: shares at the price you paid, plus the cash each open put secures, less the premium collected on your open options. It's a quick way to see where your capital already sits.

Tap a column header to sort by it, and again to reverse. Tap a row to make that stock the app's current symbol: the quote header, chart and options table follow it. Export CSV saves the list in its current order.

Wheel grades

Tap a grade badge for its details: A Strong Wheel Fit, B Good Wheel Fit, C Mixed Wheel Fit, D Weak Wheel Fit or F Poor Wheel Fit, with a summary, assignment comfort, valuation status, key bull points and key risks, and a Main Concern when there is one. A Stale tag means the review is past its expiry.

Grades rate how a stock fits SmartStrikes' wheel criteria. Every user sees the same grade; it doesn't consider your positions or finances and isn't a recommendation.

Requesting a grade

A ? badge opens Grade Pending: the stock isn't graded yet. Tap Request a grade, and the dialog confirms that the most-requested symbols are graded first. Each person counts once per symbol, and you can request up to 10 new symbols a day. Futures can't be graded. Requests are anonymous to the grading side: nothing about you or your positions goes with them. Once the symbol is graded, the badge shows its grade.

The scanner

The Scanner scores every stock in the chosen list. Press Run Scanner; a progress bar shows how far along it is, and Cancel stops it and keeps the previous results. Each run fetches fresh market metrics, then:

1. runs Phase 1 on every stock, and
2. runs Phase 2 on the stocks that passed Phase 1, from about two years of daily prices.

Results stay until you run again or change the list. Options-chain pricing isn't part of the scanner yet; use the options table for a stock's strikes.

Phase 1: the stock and its premium

Phase 1 gives each stock a P1 Score from 0 to 100, made of four parts:

To pass, a stock must also clear a set of hard filters, such as not being graded D or F, positive earnings, a market cap of at least $2 billion and enough option liquidity, plus a minimum on each score. Hover over No in the P1 Elig column to see which filters a stock failed.

Phase 2: the trend

Phase 2 scores the price trend with the Screener indicator chosen in Settings → Research:

• TBO Trend Cloud (the default), the same trend cloud as the chart. A bearish (purple) regime fails. It also gives each stock a Put Score and a Call Score.
• Moving Averages: a stock fails if its 200-day average isn't rising, or if it closes more than 20% below it.

Both are worked out on every run, so switching indicators re-ranks the results straight away. Hover over P2 Pass for the strengths or the reasons a stock failed.

Ranking and reading the results

Combined is the average of the Phase 1 and Phase 2 scores. Rank puts stocks that passed both phases first, then those that passed only Phase 1, then the rest, and orders each group by your Ranking choice:

• General: by Combined.
• Put Score or Call Score: by the P1 Score averaged with that TBO score. These need the TBO indicator.

Detail View switches the columns between P1, P2 and All; every view starts with Rank, Symbol, Mid, Combined, Grade and Conf. Hover over any header for what the column means. Tap a header to sort, type in Symbol to filter the rows, and tap a row to make that stock the current symbol.