OPRA

What Is OPRA?

OPRA (Options Price Reporting Authority) is the entity responsible for collecting and redistributing all options quotes and trade data from every U.S. options exchange through a single consolidated feed. When you see a real-time bid, ask, or last-sale price for any listed U.S. option, that data flows through OPRA. It is the authoritative source for National Best Bid and Offer (NBBO) across all options markets.

U.S. options trade on more than a dozen exchanges—CBOE, Nasdaq PHLX, NYSE American, MIAX, and others. Without a consolidated feed, a trader would need to connect to every exchange separately to find the best available price. OPRA solves this by aggregating all quotes and prints into a unified real-time stream. Every broker and data provider offering options quotes sources that data from OPRA, either directly or through a downstream data vendor.

OPRA is administered by a plan committee representing the participating exchanges. It is a self-regulatory organization operating under SEC oversight. The fees for OPRA data access are set by the participating exchanges and distributed back to them based on share of trade volume reported through the feed.

Why It Matters for Options Traders

Options traders interact with OPRA data every time they look at a quote. The bid-ask spread displayed in your broker’s options chain is calculated from OPRA data—it represents the best available bid across all exchanges and the best available ask across all exchanges, combined into the NBBO. When you submit a limit order, your broker routes it to the exchange most likely to fill at that price, informed by OPRA’s consolidated view of where liquidity sits.

The volume of OPRA data is substantial. U.S. options markets collectively generate millions of quote updates per second during active trading. Full OPRA data feeds are extremely high bandwidth, which is why direct OPRA access is typically reserved for institutional participants, market makers, and sophisticated data vendors. Retail brokers and most active traders access OPRA data through downstream providers who normalize and deliver it at appropriate latency.

For flow analysis tools—including platforms like Options Flow—the underlying data source is OPRA. When a scanner detects an unusual print, that print originated as a trade report submitted by the executing exchange to OPRA and then distributed to all subscribers. The accuracy and latency of flow data is directly tied to how cleanly the platform ingests and processes OPRA’s feed.

OPRA data also drives options analytics platforms’ real-time Greeks calculations, IV surfaces, and open interest updates. The quality of any options analytics tool ultimately traces back to how well it handles OPRA data.

Key Characteristics

• Consolidated feed: Aggregates quotes and trade reports from all U.S. options exchanges into a single unified data stream
• NBBO source: The National Best Bid and Offer for any listed U.S. option is calculated from OPRA data—the authoritative pricing source
• High bandwidth: Among the highest-bandwidth financial data feeds available, requiring substantial infrastructure to consume in real time
• SEC oversight: Operates as a plan administered by participating exchanges under SEC supervision
• Downstream delivery: Most retail traders access OPRA data through brokers or data vendors who normalize the feed, not through direct OPRA connections
• Trade report authority: All trade prints for listed U.S. options flow through OPRA—the definitive record of what traded and at what price
• Foundation for flow scanners: Options flow tools, unusual activity scanners, and real-time analytics platforms depend on accurate OPRA data ingestion