thinkorswim has more options tools than any retail platform. The problem is that most traders only use 10% of what's available. This guide covers the tools that actually move the needle for options traders — and how to use each one effectively.

The Analyze Tab

The Analyze tab is the crown jewel of thinkorswim. If you're trading options and not using it, you're leaving money on the table.

Risk Profile: Shows the theoretical profit/loss of any options position across a range of prices and dates. You can adjust the date slider to see how your position's P&L changes as time passes. This is essential for understanding how theta decay impacts your trades before expiration.

How to use it effectively:

  • Enter any options position, then toggle between "Today" and expiration to see how time changes your risk
  • Add multiple positions to see portfolio-level risk
  • Adjust the implied volatility slider to stress-test your position against IV changes
  • Use the probability cone overlay to see the statistical likelihood of hitting various price levels

    • Price Slices: Add horizontal markers at key price levels to see your exact P&L if the underlying reaches that price. Use these at your breakeven points, max profit points, and stop-loss levels.

    thinkBack

    thinkBack lets you look up historical options prices for any date. Want to know what a 30-delta SPY put expiring in 45 days was worth on March 15, 2020? thinkBack tells you.

    Practical applications:

  • Verify what options were actually trading at during historical events
  • Manually walk through a strategy on past dates to understand how it would have performed
  • Check historical IV levels to see if current premiums are rich or cheap
  • Study how real options prices behaved during earnings or market crashes

    • Options Statistics

    Under the Trade tab, expand the option chain's column headers and add:

  • Prob.ITM — Probability of the option expiring in the money
  • Prob.OTM — Probability of expiring out of the money
  • Prob.Touch — Probability the strike will be touched before expiration
  • Sizzle Index — Unusual options activity indicator comparing current volume to average
  • IV Percentile — Where current IV ranks relative to the past year

    • The Sizzle Index is particularly useful for spotting unusual activity that might indicate informed trading before events.

    Stock Hacker and Option Hacker Scans

    Stock Hacker lets you scan for stocks meeting specific criteria. For options traders, useful scans include:

  • Stocks with IV Rank above 50 (rich premiums)
  • Stocks with Sizzle Index above 2.0 (unusual options activity)
  • Stocks within 5% of 52-week highs (covered call candidates)

    • Option Hacker scans across the entire options universe:

  • Find options with specific delta ranges
  • Scan for puts with premium above a certain percentage
  • Locate high open interest strikes

    • The Market Maker Move (MMM)

    Before earnings, thinkorswim displays the Market Maker Move — the expected price move priced into options. This shows you what the market thinks will happen. If the MMM is $5 and you're selling a strangle with short strikes $3 away, you're taking a trade the market says will likely lose.

    Probability Analysis

    Right-click any option and select "Analyze" to see probability distributions. This shows the bell curve of expected outcomes and lets you visualize where your breakevens fall relative to the expected distribution.

    Tips for Getting the Most From thinkorswim

  • Save your workspace layouts. Create separate layouts for trade entry, analysis, and portfolio monitoring.
  • Use the on-demand feature to replay historical markets in real-time. Practice without risk.
  • Set up conditional alerts on Greeks, price levels, or volatility thresholds.
  • Learn the hotkeys. Keyboard shortcuts dramatically speed up your workflow.

    • Complementing thinkorswim

    While thinkorswim's analysis tools are outstanding, it doesn't provide guided screening for income strategies. OptionsPilot fills this gap by automatically surfacing the highest-quality covered call and put-selling opportunities, ranked by return metrics. Use OptionsPilot for discovery, thinkorswim for deep analysis, and you've got a complete workflow.