What the score measures
The score grades how tradable a single option contract looks right now, using only that contract's own quote and volume data. A high score says the contract is liquid, quotes tightly, sits in a workable implied-volatility band, is close to the money, and has a delta in a balanced range.
A high score does not mean a trade in that contract is more likely to be profitable.
The score contains no forecast of direction, no probability of profit, and no expected return. It has not been validated against realised trade outcomes. Treat it as a filter for contracts worth looking at, never as a reason to take a position.
The five factors
The five factor scores are summed and clamped to the 0–100 range. There is no hidden sixth factor and no discretionary override.
| Factor | Max points | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Liquidity | 25 | 25% |
| Spread quality | 25 | 25% |
| Implied volatility band | 25 | 25% |
| Moneyness | 15 | 15% |
| Delta balance | 10 | 10% |
| Total | 100 | 100% |
Liquidity
25 / 100How much trading interest the contract itself has. Volume is scored linearly up to 5,000 contracts (15 points) and open interest linearly up to 10,000 contracts (10 points). Both are capped, so an extremely heavily traded contract cannot outscore a merely well-traded one on this factor.
- Inputs:
- Same-session contract volume and open interest, from the option-chain provider.
- Missing data:
- A missing or zero value scores zero for that half of the factor. It is not imputed.
Spread quality
25 / 100The bid/ask spread as a fraction of the contract mid price, bucketed: at or under 5% scores full marks, 10% scores 20, 20% scores 15, 40% scores 8, and anything wider scores 3. A contract with a non-positive mid scores zero.
- Inputs:
- Bid, ask and mid from the most recent quote snapshot.
- Missing data:
- A contract with no usable mid price scores zero on this factor rather than being excluded.
Implied volatility band
25 / 100Where implied volatility sits relative to a fixed band, not relative to the symbol's own history. IV between 20% and 50% scores full marks, 15% to 60% scores 18, above 60% scores 10, and below the band scores 5.
- Inputs:
- Provider implied volatility, stored as a decimal fraction (0.24 = 24%).
- Missing data:
- A contract with no implied volatility falls into the lowest bucket and scores 5.
Moneyness
15 / 100How close the strike sits to the underlying price, as an absolute percentage distance: within 0.5% scores 15, within 1% scores 12, within 2% scores 8, within 5% scores 4, and further out scores 1.
- Inputs:
- Contract strike and the underlying price from the same snapshot.
- Missing data:
- A non-positive underlying price scores zero on this factor.
Delta balance
10 / 100A base of 5 points, plus 5 more when absolute delta is between 0.40 and 0.60, or 3 more when it is between 0.30 and 0.70. Capped at 10.
- Inputs:
- Provider delta where available, otherwise the internally computed Black-Scholes delta.
- Missing data:
- A contract with no delta keeps the 5-point base and receives no bonus.
Data sources and freshness
Scores are computed from option-chain snapshots taken during the regular US session. Quotes come from the configured market-data provider for the deployment; the provider in use and the snapshot time are recorded on each scan run, and the scan timestamp is shown alongside the results in the application.
Quotes are not streaming. A score is a photograph of the contract at the moment of the snapshot, and 0DTE liquidity and spreads move faster than the snapshot interval. Always confirm the live quote in your broker before acting on anything the scanner shows.
Numeric units are declared once and applied consistently: implied volatility and the Greeks are stored as decimal fractions, dividend yield is stored in percent units as the vendor returns it, and prices are US dollars. Values outside a plausible range are shown as unavailable rather than rendered as fact.
Normalisation
Two factors are scored linearly against a fixed ceiling and then capped: volume and open interest. The other three are bucketed against fixed thresholds. Nothing is normalised against the peer set, so a contract's score does not depend on what else the scan returned that day. Two identical contracts scanned a week apart receive the same score.
The fixed thresholds are a deliberate trade-off. They make scores comparable across days and symbols, and they make the score less sensitive to a symbol's own volatility history than an IV-rank-based approach would be. That limitation is listed below rather than hidden.
What is not disclosed here
The factors, weights, thresholds and normalisation rules on this page are the complete scoring model. Nothing about the score itself is withheld.
Two adjacent outputs are not covered by this page and are documented separately in the application: the confidence value that accompanies a score, which reflects how many inputs were present rather than how reliable the score is, and the strategy-variant analysis, which is a separate calculation applied after scoring.
Known limitations
- It is descriptive, not predictive. It grades how tradable a contract looks from its own quote and volume data. It does not estimate the probability that a trade in that contract will be profitable, and no study on this platform has established such a link.
- It contains no directional view. Nothing in the five factors expresses an opinion on whether the underlying will rise or fall.
- The implied-volatility factor uses a fixed band, not an IV rank or percentile against the symbol's own history. A symbol whose IV is always high scores the same as one that is unusually elevated today.
- It scores each contract in isolation. It does not evaluate multi-leg structures, and a high-scoring leg does not imply a sound spread.
- It does not model commissions, exchange fees, slippage, or the cost of crossing the spread on exit.
- It reflects a point-in-time snapshot. Liquidity and spreads on 0DTE contracts change materially within minutes, so a score can be stale by the time it is read.
- It does not account for scheduled events, halts, or news.
- Where the platform reports an implied-volatility band position, that is the position of current IV inside a fixed reference band that is the same for every symbol, and it says nothing about whether today is unusual for that symbol. A true IV rank and percentile are shown instead once enough daily implied volatility has been captured for the symbol; capture began recently, so most symbols still show the band position.
- Score components are capped, so the total compresses at the top of the range. A 95 and an 85 are not necessarily meaningfully different.
Versioning and corrections
The methodology carries a version number, currently 1.0.0, effective 2026-09-09. Every score the engine produces is stamped with the version that generated it. A change to the factors or weights is a major version bump, a change to a threshold is a minor bump, and both are made in the same change that alters the code, so the published description cannot drift from what runs.
If you find a discrepancy between this page and the behaviour of the scanner, that is a defect worth reporting. Write to support@0dte.solutions and it will be corrected here.
Related
- How to trade 0DTE options — contract mechanics, expiration and settlement, and the risk of each structure.
- Risk disclosure — the terms under which this analysis is published.
- Pricing — what each tier includes.
This platform is for educational and informational purposes only. It does not constitute financial advice. Options trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Past performance does not guarantee future results.