OptionMetrics has launched IvyDB TradeFlow, a new database product designed to give institutional users visibility into buying and selling order flow in the US options market, along with data on retail trading behavior and participation in zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options trading.

The launch addresses a persistent gap for institutional desks. Options volume statistics published daily by the OCC and the exchanges aggregate contracts across calls and puts, strikes and expirations, but they do not break out the direction of the aggressor — whether printed volume reflects customers opening or closing positions, or hitting the bid versus lifting the offer. IvyDB TradeFlow is built to fill that gap, classifying executed trades by order type so that buy-side and sell-side users can decompose volume into demand-driven and supply-driven components.

The product sits alongside OptionMetrics' established IvyDB option pricing and historical volatility databases, which buy-side firms, market makers and academic researchers already use as reference data for options analytics. TradeFlow extends that franchise from pricing history into microstructure: who was buying, who was selling, and in what size.

Three use cases anchor the release. First, buying and selling order flow: desks can measure the balance of customer aggressor activity in individual names and across the listed options market, a input for execution timing and for gauging positioning pressure ahead of or after events. Second, retail trading behavior: the database flags flow that exhibits retail participation characteristics, allowing institutions to track how non-professional activity shifts across underlyings and time — a segment whose footprint in single names and index products has grown materially in recent years. Third, 0DTE participation: with same-day-expiry contracts now a large and contested share of volume in SPX and other index options, TradeFlow provides data on who is participating in that flow, giving market makers and institutional users a basis for sizing and hedging decisions rather than relying on asserted narratives about 0DTE activity.

For execution desks, the practical question is workflow integration. OptionMetrics distributes IvyDB content in database form, which means quant teams and execution analysts can join TradeFlow classifications with existing IvyDB pricing, volume and implied volatility fields in research and pre-trade analysis. The classifications are historical rather than real-time, so the product targets post-trade analytics, strategy research and best-execution review rather than live routing decisions.

The launch also reflects a broader vendor trend. As options volumes have grown and the composition of flow — retail versus institutional, opening versus closing, directional versus hedging — has become harder to infer from published statistics, data providers have moved to sell flow decomposition as a product. Firms that buy this data are effectively purchasing the ability to test claims about positioning and participant behavior against classified records instead of anecdote.

What is measured and what is asserted matters here. OptionMetrics states that IvyDB TradeFlow provides insights into order flow direction, retail behavior and 0DTE participation; the classifications rest on the vendor's methodology for inferring trade direction and participant type, and users will want to examine that methodology, and validate it against their own fills, before embedding it in execution or risk models.

OptionMetrics says IvyDB TradeFlow is available now as part of its data offerings, with coverage of US-listed options. Institutional demand for flow-level options data — particularly around 0DTE and retail activity — suggests further vendor investment in this segment is likely as desks seek harder numbers on participant behavior.