ProphetX uses a special symbology to control what data is queried. The symbol is composed of the following fields:
- Option Root
- Either the month/year or a continuous contract identifier
- The continuous contract identifier has the form @O<integer>. The integer value of a continuous contract identifier indicates what month relative to the current front month is used. With a value of 1 indicating the front month
- An optional C or P for call or put
- If not specified, ProphetX returns an average of call and put
- Relative strike identifier
- A relative strike identifier has either the form @M for “at the money”, or @A<integer> / @B<integer> for above “at the money” or below “at the money” respectively
- The integer value for above and below indicates how many strikes above or below the money are used
- The characters “.IV”
- An optional early roll identifier of the form {<integer>
- Integers 1-45 are supported
- Early roll identifiers are only used for continuous contracts.
- An early roll identifier tells ProphetX to switch from one expiration to another before an option’s actual expiration. The number in the identifier indicates how many trading days early to roll.
Sample Symbols
- @[email protected]
- @C – Options root (Corn)
- Z23 – Option maturity
- C – Call
- @M – At the money strikes
- .IV – Standard suffix
- This symbol will return implied volatility of only the at-the-money call option: e.g., @CZ23C6000
- QCL@[email protected]
- QCL – Options root (Crude)
- @O1 – Continuous front month contracts
- P – Put
- @A1 – First strike above (greater than) the at the money strike
- .IV – Standard suffix
- This symbol will return implied volatility for front month crude options which have strikes close to the current underlying futures price.
- @S@[email protected]{2
- @S – Options root (Soybeans)
- @O2 – Continuous second month contracts
- Neither C or P specified, so return an average of the two
- @B2 – Two strikes below at the money
- .IV – Standard suffix
- {2 – Roll the options two trading days before expiration.
- This symbol will return implied volatility for second month soybean options which are two strikes below the current underlying futures price, and it will roll to new expiration’s two days before the options expire.