Dr. Lena Fischer is a quantitative researcher at a small systematic fund in Boulder, Colorado. She has been an OptionsBell user for five months, mostly through the MCP server and the REST API. Recorded September 9, 2026.
The signals she builds
I aggregate unusual flow by sector and by expiry bucket. The MCP server has tools that show where the day's unusual premium sits along the DTE axis. Short-dated I read as event bets, long-dated as positioning. That distinction on its own changed how I weight my signals.
Before, I did this by hand. I'd pull data from a terminal, export it to CSV and aggregate it in pandas, and that took two hours per session. Now I ask Claude through the MCP and get the aggregated view back in seconds. With OptionsBell my research cycle went from hours to minutes.
Compared with Unusual Whales
Unusual Whales has more data types: congressional trades, dark pool, Greek exposure. Their API gives you 100+ endpoints. But the API costs a separate $150 a month, or $125 billed yearly. And I don't use congressional trades, I use unusual flow.
My use case is unusual flow on a defined universe, aggregated by sector and expiry. For that, the OptionsBell REST API gives me exactly the fields I need at a fraction of the cost. I'm not paying for data I won't query. That's the efficiency argument.
Historical data
The MCP has a flow history tool per symbol. I pull the series, run my aggregation and backtest. Previous days come from the historical endpoint. Over five months of research, that's been enough.
If I needed ten years of tick-level data, I'd look somewhere else. But for aggregate flow signals over recent weeks, OptionsBell covers it.
Limitations she has hit
It's US equities only, seven thousand tickers. For my fund that's the entire universe. If I needed international options flow I'd have to go elsewhere, but I don't.
The other limitation is that OptionsBell is focused on flow. There are no Greek exposure maps, no dealer positioning, no dark pool. For a pure flow signal that's fine. For a multi-factor model I'd need to supplement it. But what it does, it does well.
Would she recommend it to other quants?
For flow-focused signals at a price point that's accessible to retail, yes. If you need the full Unusual Whales suite, that's a different product. Unusual Whales is a data platform, OptionsBell is a flow signal service.
But say you're building on unusual options activity and you want API access without paying that $150 a month tax. Then OptionsBell is the obvious choice. I ran the numbers. Over five months of research, the cost savings alone paid for the whole subscription multiple times over.
Unusual Whales is a data platform, OptionsBell is a flow signal service. I'm not paying for data I won't query.
The tools Lena leans on are get_sector_flow, get_expiry_concentration and get_flow_history. All of them are listed with examples in the MCP documentation.
Full interview transcript
Recorded transcript, lightly edited for readability.
Interviewer: Welcome. Today we have Dr. Lena Fischer, a quantitative researcher at a small systematic fund in Boulder, Colorado. Lena's been using OptionsBell for five months.
Dr. Lena Fischer: Five months, yes. I mostly use OptionsBell through the MCP server and the REST API, for signal research.
Interviewer: What kind of signals?
Dr. Lena Fischer: I aggregate unusual flow by sector and by expiry bucket. The MCP server has tools that show where the day's unusual premium sits along the DTE axis. Short-dated I read as event bets, long-dated as positioning. That distinction on its own changed how I weight my signals.
Before, I did this by hand. I'd pull data from a terminal, export it to CSV and aggregate it in pandas, and that took two hours per session. Now I ask Claude through the MCP and get the aggregated view back in seconds. With OptionsBell my research cycle went from hours to minutes.
Interviewer: How does this compare with Unusual Whales?
Dr. Lena Fischer: Unusual Whales has more data types: congressional trades, dark pool, Greek exposure. Their API gives you 100+ endpoints. But the API costs a separate $150 a month, or $125 billed yearly. And I don't use congressional trades, I use unusual flow.
My use case is unusual flow on a defined universe, aggregated by sector and expiry. For that, the OptionsBell REST API gives me exactly the fields I need at a fraction of the cost. I'm not paying for data I won't query. That's the efficiency argument.
Interviewer: What about historical data?
Dr. Lena Fischer: The MCP has a flow history tool per symbol. I pull the series, run my aggregation and backtest. Previous days come from the historical endpoint. Over five months of research, that's been enough.
If I needed ten years of tick-level data, I'd look somewhere else. But for aggregate flow signals over recent weeks, OptionsBell covers it.
Interviewer: Any limitations you've run into?
Dr. Lena Fischer: It's US equities only, seven thousand tickers. For my fund that's the entire universe. If I needed international options flow I'd have to go elsewhere, but I don't.
The other limitation is that OptionsBell is focused on flow. There are no Greek exposure maps, no dealer positioning, no dark pool. For a pure flow signal that's fine. For a multi-factor model I'd need to supplement it. But what it does, it does well.
Interviewer: Would you recommend it to other quants?
Dr. Lena Fischer: For flow-focused signals at a price point that's accessible to retail, yes. If you need the full Unusual Whales suite, that's a different product. Unusual Whales is a data platform, OptionsBell is a flow signal service.
But say you're building on unusual options activity and you want API access without paying that $150 a month tax. Then OptionsBell is the obvious choice. I ran the numbers. Over five months of research, the cost savings alone paid for the whole subscription multiple times over.