Glossary term
Options Price Reporting Authority (OPRA)
The Options Price Reporting Authority is the system and plan that consolidates U.S. listed-options quote and trade information for public distribution.
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What Is OPRA?
The Options Price Reporting Authority, or OPRA, is the system and national market system plan that consolidates and distributes U.S. listed-options quote and last-sale information. It is the options-market counterpart to the consolidated data feeds investors may see in equity markets.
OPRA helps make options prices visible across participating exchanges. When a brokerage platform shows options quotes, bid-ask spreads, last trades, or chains, OPRA data is often part of the market-data infrastructure behind that display.
Key Takeaways
- OPRA consolidates listed-options quote and trade information from participating options exchanges.
- It supports public dissemination of options market data.
- OPRA data helps investors compare bids, offers, last sales, and liquidity across options markets.
- Market-data fees, capacity, and quote volume are important practical issues in options data distribution.
How the Data Flow Works
Options exchanges generate quotes and trade reports. OPRA receives that information from participating exchanges, consolidates it, and disseminates it through data vendors and broker platforms. Investors usually see the result through an options chain rather than through OPRA directly.
Because options markets have many strike prices, expirations, and series, the amount of quote data can be large. A single active stock can have many related option contracts, each with its own bid, ask, size, and last-sale information.
Market Data Item | What It Helps Show |
|---|---|
Bid | Highest displayed price a buyer is currently willing to pay. |
Ask | Lowest displayed price a seller is currently willing to accept. |
Last sale | Price of the most recent reported trade. |
Series data | Quotes and trades by expiration, strike, and option type. |
What Options Traders Notice
OPRA is not a trading strategy or a recommendation source. Its practical importance is transparency. Better quote and trade data helps investors evaluate spreads, liquidity, execution quality, and whether a contract is actively traded.
Options data can still be hard to interpret. Wide bid-ask spreads, stale quotes, low open interest, and fast-moving markets can all make a displayed price less useful than it appears. OPRA data is a market-data feed, not a guarantee that an investor will execute at a preferred price.
Market-Structure Context
OPRA sits in the background of listed-options market structure. It is separate from the Options Clearing Corporation, which clears contracts after trades occur. OPRA is about price reporting and data dissemination; OCC is about clearing and settlement.
That distinction matters when reading options documents. Quote data, order execution, clearing, assignment, and settlement are connected but separate pieces of the listed-options system.
The Bottom Line
OPRA consolidates and distributes U.S. listed-options quote and trade data. Investors usually encounter it indirectly through brokerage options chains, where the quality and timeliness of market data shape how clearly they can see prices and liquidity.