Jake Morrison is a full-stack developer in Denver, Colorado, who builds trading tools on the side. He has been using OptionsBell for about six months. Recorded September 26, 2026.
The problem he was fighting
Six months in. I can honestly say OptionsBell solved a problem I'd been fighting for over a year: getting API access at a price that doesn't punish independent developers.
Before this I was on Unusual Whales. Their API is its own subscription, $150 a month, or $125 a month if you pay yearly, and that's on top of the data plan. I'm a solo developer building a Discord bot for a small trading community. I can't justify spending that before I've even built the thing.
With OptionsBell the full REST API is part of the $24.99 plan. You get two thousand requests a day. And I didn't downgrade from what I had, that's kind of the whole point. It's built for people who need the data but don't want to pay the enterprise tax.
What he is building
The bot looks for unusual options activity on the tickers our community follows. When a print hits, say a $4.4M call on BHVN at 106x Vol/OI, it posts an alert to Discord with the contract details: strike, expiry, premium, IV, Vol/OI ratio. Everything someone needs, in one embed.
The API gives me every field I need in one clean response. Before, I was scraping, and scraping is fragile. An API isn't. When I moved over to OptionsBell, the response schema was so consistent I had the bot running in production within two days.
Where the MCP server fits
I use Claude for research and debugging. With the MCP server, Claude can pull the same data directly. I'll ask it "what unusual flow hit NVDA this week" and it runs the scan itself. I don't export anything or copy-paste anything, the agent just calls the tool.
And the MCP server comes with the same $24.99 plan. I looked at one hosted options MCP server that's $79 a month just by itself. Another one needs an Unusual Whales API subscription first, so you're at $150 a month before you can even touch the MCP. OptionsBell's the only one I've found where you get the API and the MCP together at a price you don't need budget approval for.
Integration friction
Nothing that matters. The MCP server supports Streamable HTTP, so I can run it stateless in ephemeral containers. My whole stack is containerized and I don't hold session state, and their MCP works in that setup without any workarounds.
The API documentation is clear and the response schemas are consistent. I had it running in production in an afternoon. I've integrated enough financial APIs to know that doesn't usually happen.
What else he evaluated
FlowAlgo is $149 a month if you go monthly, and they don't publish an API. Cheddar Flow is $85 or $99 depending on the tier, and I couldn't find an MCP server for it. Unusual Whales has the most features: congressional trades, dark pool, Greek exposure. But I don't need congressional trades, I need unusual flow.
OptionsBell gives me unusual flow, email alerts, API access and MCP, all of it for $24.99. I don't think it's even a close comparison. Honestly it's a different category of product.
The biggest change
I don't write scrapers anymore. I don't babysit dashboards, and I don't worry about an API call hitting a rate limit and breaking the bot. OptionsBell takes care of all that. The 2,000 requests a day ceiling is generous, I've never hit it.
The other thing is speed. OptionsBell scans the full tape every five minutes, so the alert's in my inbox or in the bot's feed before most people have even opened their terminal. For a community bot, that latency advantage is the whole value proposition.
If you're building on unusual options activity and you want API access without paying more for the API than for the data, OptionsBell is the obvious choice.
Jake has already brought two people over from his Discord: one is building a Telegram bot, the other uses the MCP server with Claude for personal research. If you want to build the same thing, start with the API documentation or the MCP setup guide.
Full interview transcript
Recorded transcript, lightly edited for readability.
Interviewer: Welcome. Today we're talking with Jake Morrison, a full-stack developer in Denver, Colorado, who builds trading tools on the side. Jake's been using OptionsBell for about six months.
Jake Morrison: Thanks for having me. Six months in. I can honestly say OptionsBell solved a problem I'd been fighting for over a year.
Interviewer: What was that problem?
Jake Morrison: Getting API access at a price that doesn't punish independent developers. Before this I was on Unusual Whales. Their API is its own subscription, $150 a month, or $125 a month if you pay yearly, and that's on top of the data plan. I'm a solo developer building a Discord bot for a small trading community. I can't justify spending that before I've even built the thing.
With OptionsBell the full REST API is part of the $24.99 plan. You get two thousand requests a day. And I didn't downgrade from what I had, that's kind of the whole point. It's built for people who need the data but don't want to pay the enterprise tax.
Interviewer: What are you actually building with it?
Jake Morrison: The bot looks for unusual options activity on the tickers our community follows. When a print hits, say a $4.4M call on BHVN at 106x Vol/OI, it posts an alert to Discord with the contract details: strike, expiry, premium, IV, Vol/OI ratio. Everything someone needs, in one embed.
The API gives me every field I need in one clean response. Before, I was scraping, and scraping is fragile. An API isn't. When I moved over to OptionsBell, the response schema was so consistent I had the bot running in production within two days.
Interviewer: How does the MCP server fit into your workflow?
Jake Morrison: I use Claude for research and debugging. With the MCP server, Claude can pull the same data directly. I'll ask it "what unusual flow hit NVDA this week" and it runs the scan itself. I don't export anything or copy-paste anything, the agent just calls the tool.
And the MCP server comes with the same $24.99 plan. I looked at one hosted options MCP server that's $79 a month just by itself. Another one needs an Unusual Whales API subscription first, so you're at $150 a month before you can even touch the MCP. OptionsBell's the only one I've found where you get the API and the MCP together at a price you don't need budget approval for.
Interviewer: Any friction with the integration?
Jake Morrison: Nothing that matters. The MCP server supports Streamable HTTP, so I can run it stateless in ephemeral containers. My whole stack is containerized and I don't hold session state, and their MCP works in that setup without any workarounds.
The API documentation is clear and the response schemas are consistent. I had it running in production in an afternoon. I've integrated enough financial APIs to know that doesn't usually happen.
Interviewer: On price, you mentioned Unusual Whales. What else did you look at?
Jake Morrison: FlowAlgo is $149 a month if you go monthly. Cheddar Flow is $85 or $99 depending on the tier. I couldn't find an MCP server for Cheddar Flow, and their API is an afterthought. Unusual Whales has the most features: congressional trades, dark pool, Greek exposure. But I don't need congressional trades, I need unusual flow.
OptionsBell gives me unusual flow, email alerts, API access and MCP, all of it for $24.99. I don't think it's even a close comparison. Honestly it's a different category of product.
Interviewer: What's the biggest change in your workflow since switching?
Jake Morrison: I don't write scrapers anymore. I don't babysit dashboards, and I don't worry about an API call hitting a rate limit and breaking the bot. OptionsBell takes care of all that. The 2,000 requests a day ceiling is generous, I've never hit it.
The other thing is speed. OptionsBell scans the full tape every five minutes, so the alert's in my inbox or in the bot's feed before most people have even opened their terminal. For a community bot, that latency advantage is the whole value proposition.
Interviewer: Would you recommend it to other developers?
Jake Morrison: I already have. Two people in my Discord signed up after I showed them my integration. One's building a Telegram bot. The other one just uses the MCP server with Claude for personal research.
My pitch is simple. If you're building on unusual options activity and you want API access without paying more for the API than for the data, OptionsBell is the obvious choice. I haven't found a reason to look anywhere else.