Methodology
How the board is built.
You press Run. Your browser asks Robinhood for the names whose options look cheapest against how the stock actually moves, pulls their chains, and grades every contract under a dollar. The output is a short list and a reason for each line.
01
Which names
Robinhood's screener, run from your own account: US stocks over $2B in market cap with implied volatility above 40% and real options volume. They are ranked by 30-day realized volatility against implied, so the names whose options are priced for the least movement relative to what the stock has been doing come first. You choose the market cap band, a share price ceiling and how many names to take. Cheap and close to the money only coexist on lower-priced shares, which is why the default ceiling is $50.
02
What we throw out
Contracts over your price ceiling, $1.00 at most. Open interest under 500. Bid–ask spreads wider than 15% of the mid. Fewer than 7 or more than 45 days to expiry. Optionally, anything whose delta is below your closeness setting. Anything you could not realistically get filled in near the mid is gone before scoring starts.
03
How the tier is built
The core signal is implied volatility against 30-day realized volatility. A contract priced as if the stock will move less than it actually has been moving is the candidate. We then adjust for liquidity, days to expiry and a known catalyst inside the window, and bucket the result:
S
Rare. Implied volatility at or under 70% of realized, open interest of 2,000 or more with a spread under 8% of the mid, and either an earnings or FDA date inside the window or open interest above 10,000. A few a week at most, and none in some weeks.
A
Strong. Clear mispricing, liquid, no catalyst needed.
B
Worth a look. Mispriced, but thinner or wider than we'd like.
C
Marginal. Passed the filters, edge is small.
D
Listed for completeness. Barely passed. Shown so the list is honest, not padded.
Tiers rank mispricing, not probability of profit. A well-priced lottery ticket is still a lottery ticket.
04
Where the data lives
Quotes come live from your Robinhood agentic account, straight to this tab, and are scored here. No server of ours ever sees them, and there is nothing to install. The connection ends when you close the tab. Every pick a scan shows is written to this browser's own storage and followed forward on the track record page; nothing is uploaded, and nothing is removed, including the losers.
Not financial advice. CheapPuts is an information product. We are not a broker, we do not execute trades, and we are not compensated by any broker. Options are risky; the large majority of contracts under a dollar expire worthless, and your own track record page will show you exactly how yours did. Do your own research and never risk money you can't lose.