An options screener MCP server lets an AI assistant such as Claude screen optionable stocks and ETFs by implied volatility, IV rank, options volume, open interest, and put-call ratio using live data calls instead of numbers recalled from training data. The MarketXLS MCP server exposes the same functions the MarketXLS Excel add-in uses, for example ImpliedVolatilityRank1y("NVDA") and opt_PutCallOIRatio("NVDA"), so the answer in chat matches the value in your spreadsheet cell. This guide lists the functions behind the screen, shows a sample screen, and includes a free static sample and a live-formula workbook requiring a paid MarketXLS subscription.
The main benefit is consistency. Implied volatility, IV rank, volume, open interest, and put-call ratios are fetched server-side from one maintained data feed, so the same screen uses the same definitions across conversations, users, and days.
Options screening: chat answer vs. spreadsheet, side by side
Here is the gap a good MCP server closes. Both columns below should agree, because they call the same licensed function.
| Question | What a raw language model often does | What an options-screener MCP primitive does |
|---|---|---|
| "What is NVDA's 30-day implied volatility?" | Recalls a number from an old snapshot | Calls ImpliedVolatility30d("NVDA") on the live feed |
| "Is that IV high or low for NVDA?" | Offers a vague opinion | Calls ImpliedVolatilityRank1y("NVDA") for a 0 to 100 rank |
| "How heavy is the options flow?" | Estimates or declines | Calls opt_TotalVolumeOptions("NVDA") |
| "Are traders leaning bullish or bearish?" | Guesses | Calls opt_PutCallVolRatio("NVDA") |
| "What is the accumulated positioning?" | Rarely distinguishes it from volume | Calls opt_PutCallOIRatio("NVDA") |
The right column is what "options screener MCP server" should mean. Every cell in the templates attached to this post maps to one of those functions.
Educational note: nothing here is investment advice. Implied volatility, IV rank, and put-call ratios are context, not recommendations or guarantees. Tickers are used only to show how the data and formulas behave.
The current options picture: liquid names screened by IV rank
To make this concrete, here is a snapshot pulled through the same MarketXLS functions the MCP server exposes, as of July 9, 2026. The screen covers heavily traded optionable underlyings and ranks them by 1-year IV rank, which shows whether options premium is rich or cheap relative to each name's own history.
| Ticker | Type | Price | IV (30d) | IV Rank (1y) | Options Volume | P/C Vol | P/C OI | Exp Move (30d) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMD | Info Tech | $550.07 | 85.5% | 94.8 | 342,528 | 0.75 | 1.10 | $134.91 |
| MSFT | Info Tech | $380.68 | 42.8% | 90.1 | 528,439 | 0.31 | 0.44 | $46.71 |
| COIN | Financials | $159.76 | 78.2% | 86.4 | 72,553 | 1.09 | 0.88 | $35.80 |
| META | Comm Services | $612.62 | 51.6% | 84.2 | 586,039 | 0.33 | 0.42 | $90.59 |
| QQQ | Index ETF | $724.08 | 23.2% | 69.8 | 8,700,025 | 1.08 | 1.40 | $48.11 |
| AMZN | Consumer Disc | $243.70 | 42.9% | 65.4 | 602,266 | 0.44 | 0.62 | $29.97 |
| NVDA | Info Tech | $202.84 | 39.9% | 63.0 | 2,494,197 | 0.48 | 0.81 | $23.18 |
| AAPL | Info Tech | $314.77 | 27.7% | 46.0 | 942,571 | 0.89 | 0.69 | $25.01 |
| TSLA | Consumer Disc | $404.28 | 48.3% | 23.7 | 2,066,372 | 1.00 | 0.73 | $56.03 |
| IWM | Index ETF | $297.65 | 19.0% | 19.2 | 1,562,351 | 1.25 | 2.83 | $16.23 |
| SPY | Index ETF | $751.70 | 12.6% | 15.5 | 12,827,607 | 1.14 | 2.02 | $27.20 |
A few things jump out of that screen, and they are exactly the read an options screener is built to surface. Single-stock names cluster at the top: AMD, MSFT, COIN, and META all sit in the upper third of their own one-year IV range, which is the textbook environment where defined-risk premium-selling structures tend to be studied. The broad-index ETFs sit at the bottom: SPY at an IV rank near 15 and IWM near 19 mean index premium is cheap versus its own history, the opposite regime. The put-call ratios add a second layer: SPY and IWM carry heavy put-heavy open interest (2.02 and 2.83), the classic footprint of portfolio hedging on the indices, while the mega-cap single stocks lean call-heavy on open interest.
None of that is a trade. It is a starting point for research, produced by one prompt or one recalculation of the attached spreadsheet.
What a raw language model does well, and where it falls short
Modern language models are genuinely good at reasoning about options. Ask one to explain why a high IV rank favors credit spreads over long calls, or to walk through the risk of an iron condor, and it will do a competent job. That is knowledge work, and it is what the model was trained for.
A language model on its own cannot measure the current market. Implied volatility changes every minute the market is open. IV rank depends on a full year of history that no model carries in its weights. Options volume and open interest are today's data, not last year's. When you ask a model for these numbers directly, it either declines or, worse, produces a confident figure that is quietly wrong. Neither outcome is acceptable when the number is going to inform a position.
An options screener MCP server splits the job cleanly. The model keeps the reasoning. The MCP server supplies the measurement. You ask "screen these names by IV rank and flag the ones with heavy put positioning," and the model calls ImpliedVolatilityRank1y and opt_PutCallOIRatio for each ticker, gets licensed numbers back, and reasons over facts instead of guesses.
Why MarketXLS uses one function set for Excel and the MCP server
The MarketXLS MCP server calls the same functions that run in the MarketXLS Excel add-in. There is no separate "AI dataset," so the value the assistant reports for a given function and symbol is the value the spreadsheet returns when it recalculates.
That matters for options more than almost any other data class, because options numbers are easy to get subtly wrong. A put-call ratio computed on volume is a different animal from one computed on open interest. A "30-day IV" can mean the standard benchmark or an ex-earnings figure. When the chat answer and the cell both resolve to opt_PutCallVolRatio("NVDA"), there is exactly one definition in play, and you can read it in the Function Docs before you rely on it.
The MarketXLS implementation: the functions behind the screen
Every column in the attached templates is a real MarketXLS function. These are the primitives an options screener MCP server exposes, and each one was verified in the Function Docs before it went into the workbook:
=QM_Last("NVDA") ' Underlying price (on-demand quote)
=ImpliedVolatility30d("NVDA") ' 30-day implied volatility (the IV benchmark)
=ImpliedVolatilityRank1y("NVDA") ' 1-year IV rank, 0 to 100
=opt_TotalVolumeOptions("NVDA") ' Total options volume traded today
=opt_TotalOpenInterestOptions("NVDA") ' Total open interest across the chain
=opt_PutCallVolRatio("NVDA") ' Put/call volume ratio (intraday sentiment)
=opt_PutCallOIRatio("NVDA") ' Put/call open-interest ratio (accumulated positioning)
=Beta("NVDA") ' Beta versus the broad market
Formula documentation: QM_Last, ImpliedVolatility30d, ImpliedVolatilityRank1y, opt_TotalVolumeOptions, opt_TotalOpenInterestOptions, opt_PutCallVolRatio, opt_PutCallOIRatio, Beta
The expected-move column is a pure Excel calculation on top of two of those functions, using the standard one-standard-deviation formula:
=QM_Last("NVDA") * ImpliedVolatility30d("NVDA") * SQRT(30/365)
Formula documentation: QM_Last, ImpliedVolatility30d
That returns the approximate one-standard-deviation (about 68% probability) range for the underlying over 30 days. Change the day count and you get the move for any horizon, which is exactly what the Expected Move sheet does across 7, 14, 30, 45, and 60 days.
For a single contract, the screen drills down with two more primitives. OptionSymbol assembles the QuoteMedia contract symbol, and QM_OpenInterest reads the open interest on that exact strike:
=OptionSymbol("NVDA", DATE(2026,8,21), "Call", 205)
=QM_OpenInterest(OptionSymbol("NVDA", DATE(2026,8,21), "Call", 205))
Formula documentation: OptionSymbol, QM_OpenInterest
Because these are the same functions the MCP server calls, you can move from a broad screen in Excel to a single-contract question in chat without the numbers shifting underneath you.
The template: what is inside
The download includes two workbooks. The static version is pre-filled with the real July 9, 2026 values you see in the table above, with a formula reference beside every number so you can see which function produced it. The formula version replaces every data cell with the MarketXLS formula, so it refreshes whenever Excel recalculates. Both share the same six sheets:
- How To Use - the workflow, the MCP access notes, and links. It explains that every function in the workbook also works inside an AI assistant through the MarketXLS MCP server.
- Options Screener - the main dashboard. Yellow input cells let you set a minimum IV rank, a minimum options volume, a days-to-expiration horizon, and a premium budget. The screener lists each underlying with price, IV, IV rank, volume, open interest, both put-call ratios, expected move, beta, and a "Passes Filter?" flag driven by your inputs. IV rank is color coded green (high), amber (mid), and red (low).
- Expected Move - the one-standard-deviation move for every name across five expirations, so you can size a strike distance to the horizon you actually trade.
- Strategy Ideas - an educational read of each name's IV regime. High IV rank flags names where premium is rich versus its own year, mid and low regimes flag the opposite. These are study prompts, not signals.
- Premium Budget - illustrative contract-count sizing from your premium budget, weighted by IV rank, using an approximate at-the-money premium proxy.
- Comparison/MCP - the full metric grid plus ready-to-paste MCP prompt ideas and the single-contract lookup pattern.
Download the templates:
- - Pre-filled with current data
- - Live-updating formulas
How to read an IV-rank options screen
IV rank tells you whether a stock's implied volatility is high or low compared with its own past year, which raw IV cannot do. Raw IV is not comparable across stocks: AMD at 85% IV and SPY at 13% IV are simply different animals, and a high absolute number can be perfectly normal for one name and extreme for another. IV rank normalizes that by asking a single question: where does today's IV sit inside this name's own one-year range, on a 0 to 100 scale?
In the July 9 screen, AMD at an IV rank of 94.8 means its implied volatility is near the top of everything it has printed over the past year, even though the broad market (SPY at 12.6% IV, IV rank 15.5) is quiet. That divergence is the whole point of ranking. A trader studying premium-selling structures screens for high IV rank because rich premium is what those structures monetize. A trader studying long options screens for low IV rank because cheap premium is what those structures need.
Pair IV rank with the put-call ratios and the picture sharpens. A name with high IV rank and a lopsided put-call open-interest ratio is telling you premium is rich and positioning is one-sided, which is a very different setup from high IV rank with balanced positioning. The Options Screener sheet puts all of these side by side so the comparison is one glance, not five lookups.
Using the MCP server with an AI assistant
Once your MCP client points at the MarketXLS MCP server, the screen becomes conversational. Some prompts that map directly to the functions above:
- "Screen SPY, QQQ, NVDA, and AMD by IV rank and flag anything above 60."
- "What is the 30-day implied volatility and put-call volume ratio for META right now?"
- "Compare the expected 30-day move for TSLA and NVDA using their live IV."
- "Which of these names has the most call-heavy open interest?"
Each prompt resolves to a function call against the data feed. The assistant reasons over the returned numbers, and the same functions in the spreadsheet produce the same values when recalculated.
What you need: plan, data speed, and platform
Options data speed depends on your MarketXLS plan. On US plans, options data is end-of-day on Standard and real-time streaming on Advanced and Business; underlying stock quotes are 15-minute delayed on Standard. The options pricing page limits options tracking to 300 symbols, and each streamed contract uses one live symbol subscription. The Excel functions run in the Windows desktop add-in and, with the mxls. prefix, in the Microsoft 365 add-in for Mac and Excel for the web. See /pricing for plans and /docs/data/options-data for options data setup.
For more on how MarketXLS exposes market data to AI tools, see the guide to the best financial data MCP servers and the analyst ratings MCP server post, both of which use the same connector pattern for different data classes.
FAQ
What is an options screener MCP server? It is a Model Context Protocol server that exposes licensed options-analytics functions (implied volatility, IV rank, options volume, open interest, put-call ratios) to an AI assistant, so the assistant can screen options with the same numbers a spreadsheet would return instead of guessing from training data.
How is this different from asking ChatGPT or Claude about options directly? A bare model recalls or invents options figures, which are stale by definition and often wrong. An MCP server fetches the numbers server-side from a maintained feed at the moment you ask, so the reasoning is the model's but the measurement is licensed and current.
What is IV rank and why does the screener sort by it? IV rank places today's implied volatility on a 0 to 100 scale within a name's own one-year range. Unlike raw IV, it is comparable across stocks, which makes it a practical first sort for deciding whether options premium is rich or cheap.
Can I use the same functions inside Excel? Yes. Every function in this post works in Excel through MarketXLS, and the same functions are what the MCP server calls. The chat answer and the spreadsheet cell resolve to one definition. The MarketXLS formulas page lists the full function library.
Do I need to build the option symbol myself for contract-level data?
No. The OptionSymbol function assembles the QuoteMedia contract symbol from a ticker, expiry, call/put flag, and strike, and you pass its result to functions like QM_OpenInterest. The Comparison/MCP sheet shows the pattern.
Is any of this a trade recommendation? No. Everything here is educational. IV, IV rank, and put-call ratios describe the current options market, they do not recommend any position, and no structure is implied to be profitable.
The Bottom Line
The MarketXLS options screener MCP server lets an AI assistant and Excel screen options from one data source, so the implied volatility, IV rank, volume, open interest, and put-call ratios in a chat answer match what your spreadsheet computes. The model does the reasoning; the functions supply the numbers, and you can check each one in the docs or in a cell. The two templates let you run the July 9, 2026 screen as static data or as formulas.
To see how the MarketXLS functions behind this screen work across Excel and AI assistants, explore MarketXLS or book a demo.
