im sure this has been touched on before but the real edge with order flow is having situational awareness on an institutional level to be able to say with a measure of confidence that X is from someone closing a position, Y is someone hedging, Z is just the short leg of a spread, etc etc.

like someone sold $6m USD worth of SPY 350 calls on friday and a lot of retail dudes were like wow omg how dare and then the cats who work at desks were like a) thats not a big number and b) you have no idea if this is someone closing a leap or what.

but yeah that kinda insight is why i took a step back from options / stonkage and just went balls deep into alg trading microstructure imbalances in /nq.

so i give alien earth its props because its actually kind of a masterpiece, but im also realizing that im not super into xeno horror anymore. like its funny because the actual cast of the show are putting in the performances of their fucking lives, everyone seems to be dialed tf in and doing just categorically great work. the writing is great. the vfx are FUCKING GREAT. and the plot is fucking great. but i just saw something slither down the back of someones shirt and im kinda like i dont know man, i got enough problems.

but you know, thats on me. thats my problem. im still here for it regardless.