Question 1

What is FLEX Flow?

Accepted Answer

FLEX Flow tracks large, custom-negotiated Cboe FLEX options orders - the trades institutions use to build multi-year positions quietly, outside the public listed order book. It's a different signal from same-day options sweeps: slower, larger, and built over months rather than minutes.

Question 2

What is a Cboe FLEX order?

Accepted Answer

FLEX stands for Flexible Exchange - a Cboe order type that lets an institution negotiate a custom strike, expiration, and size directly rather than trading a standard listed contract. Cboe publishes a report of the prior day's FLEX executions once per day.

Question 3

What do PENDING, VALIDATED, and VOIDED mean?

Accepted Answer

A FLEX position is checked against the underlying's price at three fixed checkpoints after detection (roughly one week, one month, and three months out). PENDING means still unresolved - normal for most positions, since these are multi-year theses. VALIDATED means the underlying moved decisively in the position's favor. VOIDED means it moved decisively against it.

Question 4

Should I trade off these fires directly?

Accepted Answer

No more than any other single input. A large FLEX print tells you where size is sitting, not why - it could reflect directional conviction, a hedge, or a financing structure with no directional view at all. Use it to notice where large, patient capital is showing up, then confirm the thesis with your own research.