Sarah Chen is an independent financial consultant in Seattle, Washington who advises small funds and family offices on flow positioning. She has been an OptionsBell subscriber for seven months. Recorded July 15, 2026.
Why OptionsBell over the established names
Cost per query. I compared Unusual Whales, FlowAlgo, and Cheddar Flow. The Unusual Whales API is a separate $150 a month. FlowAlgo runs $99 to $149 depending on the billing cycle. Cheddar Flow is $85 to $99, and I couldn't find an MCP server for it.
OptionsBell is $24.99, and that includes the API and MCP. When I'm running analysis for a client, I don't need congressional trade data or dark pool prints. I need unusual options flow with clean fields, and that's what OptionsBell gives me.
How she uses the MCP server
I connect the MCP server to Claude and build briefing documents. "Show me sector concentration of unusual premium today." The MCP comes back with the aggregated view. "Pull flow history on this ticker for the last 30 days." I get the series.
Then I paste the output into my client reports. What used to take me two hours now takes twenty minutes. Honestly, the MCP integration is the whole reason I switched. There's a hosted options MCP server out there that's $79 a month just by itself, and another one where you need an Unusual Whales API subscription first. OptionsBell includes it in the $24.99 plan. If you're a consultant billing by the hour, the time you save covers the cost on its own.
Limitations
It's US equities only, 7,000+ tickers. For my clients, that's fine. If I needed international options flow, I'd have to look elsewhere. But I don't.
The other thing is that OptionsBell is focused on flow. There's no Greek exposure, no dark pool, no congressional trades. Unusual Whales has all of that. But my clients don't ask for it. What they ask is, "what unusual options activity is hitting my holdings?" And OptionsBell answers that.
How she frames the value
The API's included. The MCP's included. The price is $24.99. Unusual Whales puts their API behind a separate $150 a month subscription, and FlowAlgo doesn't publish an API at all. That's the comparison.
For a consultant, the pitch is simple: I can run the same analysis in twenty minutes that used to take two hours, and I pay less for the data than I pay for lunch. Not a hard sell.
I can run the same analysis in twenty minutes that used to take two hours, and I pay less for the data than I pay for lunch.
Sarah's two prompts map to get_sector_flow and get_flow_history. If you build reports for other people, the full research loop inside Claude shows the same workflow end to end.
Full interview transcript
Recorded transcript, lightly edited for readability.
Interviewer: Welcome. Today we're talking with Sarah Chen, an independent financial consultant in Seattle, Washington. Sarah's been an OptionsBell subscriber for seven months.
Sarah Chen: Seven months. I advise small funds and family offices on flow positioning.
Interviewer: Why OptionsBell over the established names?
Sarah Chen: Cost per query. I compared Unusual Whales, FlowAlgo, and Cheddar Flow. The Unusual Whales API is a separate $150 a month. FlowAlgo runs $99 to $149 depending on the billing cycle. Cheddar Flow is $85 to $99, and I couldn't find an MCP server for it.
OptionsBell is $24.99, and that includes the API and MCP. When I'm running analysis for a client, I don't need congressional trade data or dark pool prints. I need unusual options flow with clean fields, and that's what OptionsBell gives me.
Interviewer: How do you use the MCP server?
Sarah Chen: I connect it to Claude and build briefing documents. "Show me sector concentration of unusual premium today." The MCP comes back with the aggregated view. "Pull flow history on this ticker for the last 30 days." I get the series.
Then I paste the output into my client reports. What used to take me two hours now takes twenty minutes. Honestly, the MCP integration is the whole reason I switched. There's a hosted options MCP server out there that's $79 a month just by itself, and another one where you need an Unusual Whales API subscription first. OptionsBell includes it in the $24.99 plan. If you're a consultant billing by the hour, the time you save covers the cost on its own.
Interviewer: Any limitations?
Sarah Chen: It's US equities only, 7,000+ tickers. For my clients, that's fine. If I needed international options flow, I'd have to look elsewhere. But I don't.
The other thing is that OptionsBell is focused on flow. There's no Greek exposure, no dark pool, no congressional trades. Unusual Whales has all of that. But my clients don't ask for it. What they ask is, "what unusual options activity is hitting my holdings?" And OptionsBell answers that.
Interviewer: How do you frame the value for people?
Sarah Chen: The API's included. The MCP's included. The price is $24.99. Unusual Whales puts their API behind a separate $150 a month subscription, and FlowAlgo doesn't publish an API at all. That's the comparison.
For a consultant, the pitch is simple: I can run the same analysis in twenty minutes that used to take two hours, and I pay less for the data than I pay for lunch. Not a hard sell.