How it works, exactly.
What is OptionReplay?
OptionReplay is an options trading simulator built on real historical option chains. Pick any trading day since 2014, see the chain exactly as it was, open a position, and step the clock forward while it is marked to market. Blind Replay hides the ticker and the date. A real-time paper book runs on live prices. It is a simulator: practice balances, never real money.
What is Blind Replay?
The server deals you a random stock in a random era with the ticker and the year hidden. You trade the chart in front of you, step forward, and exit. Only then is the name revealed. The browser never sees the ticker, only a token, so it cannot be cheated. Every closed trade is saved to your track record and ranked on the Blind leaderboard.
Do all tiers get real-time NBBO pricing?
Yes. Every tier, including Rookie, has real-time pricing in the real-time book: a live bid and ask on every strike, with the contract's own spread around the exchange's real-time value, rounded out to the cent. Open positions are valued at the contract's last real trade, never at the mid.
How are option fills priced?
Fill price depends on your order size relative to the contract's own liquidity. Orders under 20% of open interest or 30% of that day's volume fill at the mid. Larger orders cross the spread and pay the ask or hit the bid. Every trade reports gross P&L, spread cost and net P&L as separate lines.
Can I fill any size?
No. You can never fill more contracts than actually traded that day. An order above that ceiling is blocked and the ticket shows the number. Closing a position you already hold is never capped. A contract with no bid or no ask has no market and cannot be traded, and the ticket says why.
What happens through a split or at expiry?
Open positions convert the way the OCC adjusts the real contract. Hold five AMZN 3200 calls through the June 2022 20-for-1 and you come out with one hundred 160 calls at the same total value. Reverse splits re-strike the contract. At expiry every contract settles at the strike against the official close, long or short, full size, whether or not anyone was quoting it.
What data does OptionReplay use?
Real historical option chains back to 2014 with bid, ask, last, volume and open interest, plus underlying price history going back further for charts. Earnings dates come from SEC filings, exact to the day. Short interest is as of the date you are on. Implied volatility and Greeks are computed by OptionReplay from the raw quotes, not taken from a vendor.
What is free, and what do the paid tiers add?
Rookie (free): unlimited replays from 2024 to today at 4-hour steps and above, ten blind trades to start and one new blind trade a day, five real-time paper trades a month with live prices, and import of your last 50 real trades. Trader adds the archive back to 2014, hourly steps, 10 real-time paper trades a month, 100 blind trades a month, 25 alerts, the Real-time leaderboard and 100 imported trades. Pro adds every timeframe down to one minute, 20 real-time paper trades a month, unlimited blind trades, 50 alerts, both leaderboards and 500 imported trades. Wizard adds unlimited real-time paper trades, unlimited alerts, your whole trade history, and a once-a-month $100,000 reload for a book you have lost. Every paid tier starts with a 7-day free trial.
Can I import my real broker trades?
Yes. Upload a CSV or a broker statement. Unusual formats are read with AI and shown to you line by line before anything is booked. The platform reads your most recent 50 trades on Rookie, 100 on Trader, 500 on Pro, and your whole history on Wizard.
Is OptionReplay investment advice? Can I trade real money?
No. OptionReplay is an educational simulator with practice balances. It never executes real-money orders, never gives recommendations, and nothing on the site is investment advice. Leaderboards show paper-trading results.
Is OptionReplay free?
Yes. The Rookie tier is free with no card and no clock: replay from 2024 to the present at 4-hour steps and above, five real-time paper trades a month with live prices, ten blind trades to start and one new blind trade a day, and analysis of your last 50 imported trades. Trader, Pro and Wizard add the full archive back to 2014, finer clocks, more blind trades, alerts and the leaderboards, and each starts with 7 days free.
How is this different from paper trading at a broker?
A broker's paper account only runs in the present, so you learn at the speed of the calendar. OptionReplay also replays any trading day since 2014 with the option chain exactly as it was, hides the ticker and date in Blind Replay so you cannot lean on hindsight, prices every fill by its size against the real book, reports the spread cost on every trade, carries positions through splits and settles expiry to the penny. The real-time paper book is there too, under the same rules.
Is OptionReplay a backtester?
No. A backtester sweeps a rule across thousands of trades and reports an average. OptionReplay is a time machine with a trade blotter: you place one trade at a time, in a chain as it stood that day, and live with it bar by bar. The aim is the fidelity of a single replayed trade, which is how trading is actually learned.
Which markets and contracts does it cover?
US-listed stock and ETF options with the standard 100-share deliverable, with option chains from 2014 to the present and stock charts reaching further back. Non-standard contracts created by odd-ratio splits, spin-offs and mergers are excluded, because their deliverables are not comparable.
Can I analyse my paper trades and Blind Replay trades too?
Yes. The same analysis that runs on an imported broker statement runs on your paper trades and your Blind Replay trades: net P&L, win rate, expectancy, drawdown, commissions, calls against puts, and every closed trade re-priced against what the contract did next.
How does the Wizard balance reload work?
The reload covers the Blind book and the Real-time book. It is offered once per calendar month, and only after that book has lost $95,000 to $100,000 of its $100,000 start, so it is a fresh start for a book that is gone, not a top-up. Stay on Wizard for 3 months after each reload; downgrade sooner and the reloaded balance is forfeited.