This Isn’t the Trade. It’s the Starting Point.
There are numerous ways to structure a trade—different strikes, expirations, and deltas. The same goes for timing your entry.
This scan doesn’t replace that thinking. What it does is get you to some of the right tickers faster.
I’m looking for names that:
Meet Key Technical Criteria:
- Price above 21 > 50 > 200 EMAs
- ADX > 20 (strong trend)
- Rate of Change > 0 (momentum is real)
- Price > $60, Volume > 1M
Skip Earnings Risk:
- TOS condition: “No earnings within 20 bars”
Screen for Volatility Sweet Spot:
- IV Percentile between 30% and 84%
- Enough premium to make the trade worth it, without IV crush risk
This is not about chasing breakouts. It’s about building a clean, focused watchlist you can evaluate for entries, risk/reward, and structure.
Why This Matters for Bull Put Spreads
When you’re selling premium, you want time on your side. These filters help you:
- Stay out of earnings traps
- Sell below real support levels
- Work with liquidity, not against it
The result? A list of tradeable stocks that fit your directional bias and options criteria.
You can add these stocks to your watchlist and apply your entry timing strategies. Let’s look at a couple of these.
Ticker: TWLO
The ADX indicator is non-directional, meaning a score above 20 shows a strong trend. I look for an ADX rising, but this scan just needs for it to be greater than 20.
I also want to see the Bollinger Bandwidth in the lower 50% of its range or decreasing. For this scan, I aim to identify stocks that are declining in volatility or have overpriced options during a period when the stock is experiencing gradual price increases.
The Rate of Change indicator was above 0, providing plenty of opportunities to trade.
What about now?
Well, the ROC is above 0, the ADX is above 20, while the underlying price is increasing. I would like to see the ADX start moving higher.
The Bollinger Bandwidth is in the lower half of its range, indicating that volatility is low and the stock can potentially break out from here. We don’t know which direction, but we can read the chart to determine a potential direction.
I drew a horizontal line at the $110 mark because that level is below two moving averages (the 21 and 50-day exponential moving averages) and it’s below the previous swing low.
To achieve roughly a third of the width of the strikes, selling around a 30 delta, I had to go out to the 15-Aug expiration. The 15-AUG 110 / 105 put credit spread is showing a mid-price of $1.35. It’s close to that ⅓ goal and gives plenty of credit and time.
What about Talen Energy?
Ticker: TLN
We have a previous resistance area at $250, which could act as a level of support. Its 50-day exponential moving average is crossing above that level, providing us with some additional indication that $250 may find further support.
The ROC is above 0, the ADX is above 20, and is increasing as a result of the recent price action. The Bollinger Bandwidth is in the lower half of the chart and is starting to decrease.
Again, looking out at the 15-AUG expiration and finding the $250 strike, we can set up a bull put credit spread for the 15-AUG $250 / $240 put spread, showing a mid-price of $2.00. It’s not giving us credit for ⅓ of the width of the strikes (we should be getting $3 in an ideal scenario), but the $250 strike is also sitting at an 18 delta. We could get closer to the money to increase the credit.
Summary: What’s the Point of All This?
This isn’t about finding a trade—it’s about building a more innovative way to find trades. The ThinkorSwim scan surfaces stocks that are trending, liquid, and option-friendly, while avoiding earnings risk and poor volatility setups. It’s built to support bull put spread traders who want a watchlist of strong candidates, not noise.
From there, you still decide how to structure the trade, when to enter, and whether the setup still makes sense. The scan just does the heavy lifting, so you’re not wasting time.
I shared two examples (TWLO and TLN) to show how the scan narrows down stocks that meet key conditions—then it’s up to you to apply judgment, tweak strikes, and choose expirations.
Bottom line: This scan gets you to quality faster. The trades still require your eyes, your logic, and your risk management.
