Professional traders have always had the tools, the data, and the knowledge. We're closing that gap. Ten modules covering everything from trading foundations to advanced options strategies — with direct links to the features in Argos Terminal.
Most traders lose money not because they can't pick stocks — but because they don't manage risk. Understanding how to size positions, set rules, and protect capital is the difference between a trader who survives and one who blows up their account in a bad month.
The percentage of your account you're willing to lose on a single trade. Most professional traders risk 1–2% per trade — meaning a string of 10 losses only reduces the account by 10-20%, leaving plenty of capital to recover.
How many shares or contracts to buy given your risk tolerance. Position size = (Account × Risk %) ÷ (Entry price − Stop loss price). Bigger accounts don't mean bigger bets — they mean the same risk in dollar terms.
The ratio between potential profit and potential loss. A 1:3 ratio means you risk $1 to make $3. With a 40% win rate and a 1:3 ratio, you're profitable over time — which is why R/R matters more than win rate alone.
Spreading exposure across sectors, strategies, and timeframes so no single event destroys the portfolio. Holding 20 highly correlated tech stocks is not diversification — they all move together when the sector drops.
A predetermined price at which you exit a losing trade. Setting stops before entering removes emotion from the decision. The most common mistake is moving a stop further away when a trade goes against you — this is how small losses become catastrophic ones.
Logging every trade — entry, exit, rationale, and outcome — is the single highest-leverage habit for improvement. Patterns in your losses reveal your actual weaknesses, not the ones you imagine you have.
Risk amount: $100 · Dollar risk per share:
Scenario: You have a $10,000 account and risk 1% per trade. You spot AAPL at $236 and plan to exit if it drops below $230 — a $6 stop distance.
Confidence after wins leads to larger bets. One bad oversized trade can erase weeks of gains. Keep position size rules regardless of recent performance.
Hope is not a strategy. Every large loss started as a small loss someone refused to take. Define your exit before you enter.
Owning 10 tech stocks feels like diversification but it isn't — they all drop together in a tech selloff. Mix sectors, timeframes, and strategies.
Entering a trade without knowing your target, your stop, and your rationale means you're gambling. Write it down before you click buy.
Monitor open positions, real-time P&L, delta exposure, and theta decay across all your strategies — stocks and options — in one place. Set position limits and track your risk in real time.
Open Portfolio Tracker →A company's financial statements are its report card. The income statement shows if it's profitable, the balance sheet shows what it owns and owes, and the cash flow statement shows if the profits are real. Together, they tell you whether a business is actually healthy — or just good at accounting.
Shows revenue, expenses, and profit over a period. Key line: net income (the bottom line). Watch for revenue growth trend, margin expansion or compression, and whether EPS (earnings per share) is growing.
A snapshot of assets, liabilities, and equity at a point in time. Assets = Liabilities + Equity. High debt relative to equity is a warning sign. Cash on hand relative to short-term debt matters for survival in downturns.
Shows actual cash movement — operating, investing, and financing. Profitable companies can still go bankrupt if cash flow is poor. Operating cash flow should be consistently positive for a healthy business.
Top-line growth tells you if the business is expanding. Accelerating revenue growth (each quarter faster than the last) is a powerful signal. Declining growth even with good margins can signal a maturing business.
Net income divided by shares outstanding. EPS growth is what drives stock prices long-term. Watch for earnings beats vs estimates — stocks often move 5–10% on earnings surprises.
Revenue growing but cash flow declining = possible accounting issues. Debt growing faster than revenue = deteriorating balance sheet. Frequent "one-time" charges = management hiding recurring costs. Goodwill exceeding equity = acquisition risk.
Here's what a strong company looks like vs a struggling one:
Every stock in the screener includes revenue growth, EPS growth, margins, debt ratios, and FCF metrics — pre-calculated so you can filter and compare without reading raw filings.
Open Stock Screener →Fundamental analysis asks: is this business worth owning? The answer comes from ratios that reveal valuation, profitability, growth, and financial health. The Argos Terminal screener covers 90+ of these metrics — here are the ones that matter most and what they tell you.
A 30 P/E is cheap for a software company and expensive for a utility. Always compare within the same sector and against the stock's own history.
A company can show net income profit while burning cash. Always check operating cash flow — it's harder to manipulate than earnings.
A 10% yield is often a sign the market expects a dividend cut. Check the payout ratio — if it's above 80%, the dividend is at risk.
The Argos Stock Screener covers all 90+ fundamental metrics with pre-built preset strategies — Buffett Quality, GARP, Dividend Compounder, Deep Value, and more — or build your own filter combination.
Open Stock Screener →Technical analysis studies price action and volume to identify trends, momentum shifts, and support/resistance levels. It doesn't tell you what a company is worth — it tells you what the market is doing right now and where it might go next. The best traders combine fundamentals and technicals.
Support is a price level where buyers have historically stepped in and stopped declines. Resistance is where sellers have capped rallies. Breakouts above resistance on high volume are bullish signals. Breakdowns below support on volume are bearish.
Each candle shows open, high, low, close for the period. Key patterns: doji (indecision), hammer (potential reversal up), engulfing candle (momentum shift). Context matters more than any single pattern — always check volume.
Price moves on high volume carry more conviction than moves on low volume. A breakout to new highs on 3× average volume is far more significant than the same move on 0.5× average volume.
Knowing where a stock sits relative to its 52-week high and low provides immediate context. Near the high = momentum/breakout potential. Near the low = value/reversal potential. The context determines which setup you're in.
A strong breakout setup typically looks like this:
The Stock Screener lets you filter by RSI range, position vs SMA200/SMA50, relative volume, and 52-week range — and the AI Screener lets you describe technical setups in plain English.
Open Screener →An option is a contract that gives you the right — but not the obligation — to buy or sell a stock at a specific price before a specific date. Options are powerful tools for generating income, hedging positions, and expressing directional views with defined risk. Understanding them well is the foundation for everything else in this hub.
The right to buy 100 shares at the strike price before expiration. Buyers profit if the stock rises above the strike + premium paid. Sellers collect premium and profit if the stock stays below the strike.
The right to sell 100 shares at the strike price before expiration. Buyers profit if the stock falls below the strike − premium paid. Sellers collect premium and profit if the stock stays above the strike.
The fixed price at which the option can be exercised. A $230 put gives the holder the right to sell at $230 regardless of where the stock is trading. The further from current price, the cheaper the option.
The date after which the option expires worthless (if out of the money). Options decay in value as time passes — this decay accelerates in the last 21 days before expiration, which is why theta matters so much.
The price of the option contract. Determined by intrinsic value (how far in the money) + extrinsic value (time + implied volatility). Sellers collect premium upfront; buyers pay it.
Intrinsic value = how far in the money (real value). Extrinsic value = time value + implied volatility premium. Out-of-the-money options have only extrinsic value — it decays to zero at expiration.
Live bid/ask, delta, IV, theta, open interest, and volume across all strikes and expiries. Click any strike to build a position directly in your portfolio tracker.
Open Options Chain →Options strategies let you define exactly what you're betting on — direction, time, volatility — and how much you can lose. The strategies below are the core of a premium-selling approach: collecting time decay with defined or bounded risk. They work best in higher-IV environments on stocks you understand well.
| Strategy | Setup | Max profit | Max loss | Best when | Outlook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash-Secured Put (CSP) | Sell 1 put, hold cash = strike × 100 | Premium collected | Strike − Premium (large) | Stock you'd buy anyway, IV elevated | Neutral–Bullish |
| Covered Call (CC) | Own 100 shares, sell 1 call above | Strike − Cost + Premium | Stock goes to zero | Stock you own, want income, capped upside OK | Neutral–Bullish |
| Short Strangle | Sell 1 OTM put + 1 OTM call | Both premiums | Unlimited (both sides) | High IV, stock expected to stay in range | Neutral |
| Iron Condor | Sell OTM put + call, buy further OTM protection | Net premium | Spread width − Premium | High IV, defined risk wanted | Neutral |
| Put Credit Spread | Sell put, buy lower put | Net premium | Spread width − Premium | Moderate IV, defined risk | Neutral–Bullish |
| Call Debit Spread | Buy call, sell higher call | Spread width − Premium | Premium paid | Directional bullish, reduce cost | Bullish |
The most popular income strategy. Sell a put at a strike you'd be happy buying the stock at. Collect premium. If the stock stays above strike, keep the premium. If it drops below, you buy shares at your preferred price — effectively getting paid to wait.
Own shares, sell a call above current price. Collect premium. If stock rises above the strike, shares get called away at a profit. If it stays below, keep premium and repeat. Reduces cost basis month by month.
Sell an OTM put AND an OTM call simultaneously. Collect both premiums. Profit if the stock stays between the two strikes at expiration. Risk is if the stock moves sharply in either direction. Best in high-IV environments on stable underlyings.
A strangle with protection — sell an OTM put spread AND an OTM call spread. Max profit is the net premium. Max loss is the spread width minus the premium. Defined risk, no margin surprises. Ideal for indexes (SPY, QQQ).
If the put gets assigned and you're forced to buy shares, you want to own that stock. Only sell CSPs on quality companies.
Selling options when IV is low means collecting thin premiums for the same risk. Wait for IVR above 30 before selling premium.
Earnings cause IV crush and large price moves. Know your DTE and your earnings date. Close or roll positions before earnings if you're not intentionally taking that risk.
Most professional options traders close at 50% of max profit and move on to the next trade. Holding to expiration for the last 50% of premium is where most losses occur.
Filter by strategy type, IV rank, delta, DTE, and premium yield across thousands of options. The screener shows you which setups meet your criteria in real time.
Open Options Screener →Options flow shows you what the big money is doing — before price often reflects it. Large unusual options trades, particularly sweeps and blocks, can signal that well-informed players are positioning ahead of a move. It's not a crystal ball, but it's one of the most powerful edges available to retail traders.
The real-time feed of options transactions on public exchanges. Each print shows: ticker, strike, expiry, type (call/put), premium, volume, and whether it was a sweep or block. Unusual prints — especially large ones far from expiration — catch our attention.
A sweep is a large order split across multiple exchanges simultaneously — urgency to fill. A block is a single large negotiated trade away from the tape. Both indicate conviction. Sweeps particularly suggest a trader needing to get in fast before the move happens.
Volume = contracts traded today. Open Interest = contracts outstanding. When volume exceeds OI on a strike, it's likely a new position — not closing an old one. This matters because new large positions are more meaningful signals than closing activity.
A $500K+ single options trade in an individual stock is unusual. Millions signal serious conviction. The premium total matters more than just the contract count — 1,000 contracts at $0.05 is noise; 100 contracts at $10 is significant.
Large stock trades executed off-exchange (in "dark pools") to avoid moving the market. When institutions buy hundreds of thousands of shares quietly, it shows up later in the dark pool data. Bullish dark pool prints on low-price stocks = potential accumulation.
Flow is often hedging, not speculation. A large put purchase might be a fund protecting a long position — not a bearish bet. Context matters: check the stock's current trend, the option's expiry, and whether similar prints have happened recently.
You see this in the Argos flow feed:
Most large prints are hedges or routine institutional activity. Look for patterns — multiple prints in the same direction over several days are far more meaningful than a single trade.
A $1M bet on calls expiring in 3 days is very different from the same bet expiring in 6 months. Short-dated large bets are often directional; long-dated could be anything.
Trades above the ask (buyer-initiated) are bullish signals. Trades at the bid (seller-initiated) are bearish. This context flips the interpretation of any given print.
Real-time feed of unusual options activity and dark pool prints, filtered by premium size, ticker, sweep/block, and sentiment. Pro plan includes live same-day flow.
View Live Flow →Institutional investors — pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, ETFs — manage trillions of dollars. When they buy or sell, they move markets. The SEC requires them to disclose their holdings quarterly (13F filings), giving retail traders a window into where the smart money is positioned. Used correctly, this is one of the most powerful signals available.
A quarterly SEC disclosure required from institutional investment managers with >$100M AUM. Filed within 45 days of quarter-end. Shows every long equity position. Note: it's a lagging indicator — you're seeing positions as of 45-90 days ago.
The percentage of a company's shares held by institutions. High institutional ownership (>70%) in a small-cap can be a risk — if they all leave, the exit is crowded. In large-caps, 70%+ is normal and healthy. Rising ownership QoQ is the signal.
The quarter-over-quarter change in institutional ownership percentage. Positive = net accumulation. Negative = net distribution. This trend matters more than the absolute level — institutions steadily increasing a position is a strong bullish signal.
When a major fund initiates a brand new position in a stock — especially a "starter" position that could grow — it signals conviction. Multiple large funds initiating simultaneously is a particularly powerful signal (institutional herding into a new idea).
When institutions completely exit a position, it's worth noting. Especially if multiple large holders exit simultaneously — it often precedes a significant price decline as selling pressure increases with no major buyers absorbing the flow.
The fraction of institutional activity that was buying (new + increased positions vs closed + reduced). Above 0.6 = net buying environment. Below 0.4 = net selling. This is the most actionable summary metric from the 13F data.
Institutional ownership %, QoQ change, new positions, buy ratio, congressional trades, and insider signals — all pre-processed and available as screener filters. Find stocks with rising institutional conviction before they move.
View Smart Money Data →A stock screener lets you filter thousands of stocks down to the handful that match your specific criteria. Instead of researching stocks randomly, you define what you're looking for — and the screener finds them. Different strategies need different filters. Here are the most effective approaches.
Looking for companies expanding revenue and earnings fast. Revenue growth >20% YoY, EPS growth >20%, expanding margins, strong ROIC. These stocks often carry higher P/E ratios — the premium is for the growth rate, not the current earnings.
Companies with sustainable dividends and growing payouts. Key filters: yield >2.5%, payout ratio <60% (sustainable), revenue growth >5% (growing the business), low debt (protecting the dividend). Watch for yield traps — very high yield often means the dividend is at risk.
High-quality businesses at reasonable prices. ROE >20%, ROIC >15%, low debt, strong margins, consistent earnings growth — but not at any price. PEG <1.5 or P/E <25 ensures you're not overpaying for quality.
Stocks moving strongly with increasing volume. 1-month performance >10%, RSI 50–70 (momentum but not overbought), relative volume >1.5×. Momentum works in trending markets and fails in choppy ones — know which environment you're in.
Beaten-down companies trading below intrinsic value. P/B <1.5, positive FCF, ROE >10%, low debt. These are patience plays — the thesis might take 12–24 months to play out. The risk is that cheap stocks can stay cheap for a long time.
Describe your investment thesis in plain English and Argos AI scans the universe for matching stocks. "Large-cap tech with strong earnings momentum and no earnings in the next 30 days" — the AI translates this and returns ranked candidates.
Here's how to build a quality growth screen in Argos Terminal:
Over-filtering produces a list of 3 stocks that perfectly match your criteria but may all be in the same sector. Start broad and narrow from there.
A screener finds candidates, not recommendations. Research each result before committing capital. The screener removes the noise — the analysis is still your job.
A great screener result in a bear market is still a stock going down. Always check the broader market environment and sector trend before acting on screener output.
Filter by any combination of fundamental, technical, momentum, and ownership metrics. Use preset strategies or build your own. The AI Screener (Pro) lets you describe your thesis in plain English.
Open Stock Screener →Options screening narrows thousands of contracts down to the handful of setups that fit your strategy and risk tolerance today. The key metrics are IV rank (are premiums elevated?), delta (how much directional exposure?), DTE (how much time?), and premium yield (are you being adequately compensated?). Here's how to use them.
Here's the filter combination for a conservative CSP scan:
IV rank above 30 (elevated premiums). Stock in an uptrend (above SMA50/SMA200). At a strike you'd be happy owning shares. No earnings within the expiry period. Enough premium to justify the capital tied up (target 1–2% per 30 days).
You already own shares. IV rank elevated (collect more premium). At a strike above your cost basis to lock in a profit if called away. Target 30–45 DTE. Avoids selling the call during strong earnings momentum — you might cap a large gain.
High IV environments on stable underlyings (established companies, not speculative). Wide strikes that the stock is unlikely to reach. Enough premium on both sides. Have a plan for rolling or defending if the stock tests one side.
Best on broad indexes (SPY, QQQ, IWM) during low-volatility consolidation periods. Defined risk — you know your maximum loss. Sell when IVR is above 25. Target the 10–20 delta strikes for the short legs.
Low IVR (under 20) means you're collecting thin premiums for the same amount of risk. Wait for elevated IV — patience is the edge in options selling.
Holding a CSP from $0.65 credit all the way to $0.00 at expiration takes the same amount of time as going from $0.65 to $0.32. Close at 50% profit and redeploy the capital for another trade.
Earnings announcements cause massive IV crush and large price gaps. Unless you're intentionally trading the event, always check that your options expire before the next earnings date.
High delta options collect more premium but also carry much higher assignment risk. New options sellers often sell 0.40-0.50 delta — too close. Start with 0.20-0.25 delta to learn the mechanics.
Filter by strategy (CSP, CC, strangle, iron condor), IV rank, delta, DTE, ROC, and earnings safety. Sorted by best risk/reward. Pro plan adds strangles and multi-leg strategies.
Open Options Screener →