Marcus Webb is a part-time trader in Tampa, Florida. He has been using OptionsBell for two months. Recorded September 3, 2026.

What happened

Two months. I signed up the week after I missed a $27.5M TSLA put print. I was holding TSLA and had no idea.

The stock dropped. I found out from a headline. By then the move was done. A colleague showed me the OptionsBell alert he'd gotten - same print, timestamped hours before the news hit. That's when I understood what I was missing.

I was blind. I owned the stock. A massive institutional bet landed on it. And I didn't know until it was too late. That's not a market problem. That's an information problem.

The experience since

I have email alerts set on twelve tickers. The emails are clean - they show the exact contract, the premium, the Vol/OI ratio. Last week I got an alert on a $5.1M INTC put at 172x Vol/OI. I don't trade every alert. But I see them. That's the difference.

OptionsBell scans the full tape every five minutes. The alert lands in my inbox minutes after the print. I'm not first. But I'm not last either. For a retail trader, that's a massive improvement over waiting for CNBC.

Does he use the API?

I don't code. I don't need to. The email is the product for me. But I like that the REST API is there if I ever want it.

That's not something you get with the expensive platforms. Unusual Whales charges a separate $150 a month for API access on top of the subscription. FlowAlgo is $149 a month and doesn't publish an API. OptionsBell includes it. I'm not paying extra for something I don't use. But I know it's there.

The biggest change

I feel informed instead of lucky. Before, every earnings season was a coin flip. I'd hold through the report and hope. Now I have a seatbelt.

The $27.5M TSLA put was the wake-up call. OptionsBell is the response. I don't want to be the guy who finds out from a headline again.

On the price

$24.99 is less than I spend on lunch in a day. For the peace of mind of knowing when something big hits on my stocks? That's not a hard decision. And there's a 14-day refund if you hate it. I didn't need it. But it's there.

That's not a market problem. That's an information problem.

If you hold single names through earnings, the pattern Marcus describes is the one to watch for: large put premium on a stock you own, days before the headline. Our guide on hedging versus speculation in put flow explains how to tell insurance from a bet.