Market Chameleon Review – Is This Market Research Tool Worth It?

Introduction To Market Chameleon

Market Chameleon is a financial market research tool that specializes in identifying U.S. stock and options trading opportunities. The browser-based service struggles with clunky navigation and slow page reloads, but traders who are willing to be patient will discover an endless stream of unique and actionable data. This is one of the best options strategy generation platforms available, especially for the aggressive earnings trader. 

So, is Market Chameleon right for you? Continue reading our Market Chameleon review to find out.

How Much Does Market Chameleon Cost?

Market Chameleon offers a free plan with access to articles and pre-built screens. It’s a nice introduction to the platform, but doesn’t unlock most of Market Chameleon’s features.

There are four premium plans available: Stock Trader, Options Trader, Earnings Trader, and Total Access.

The Stock Trader plan costs $39 per month and provides access to various dividend reports and stock screeners. 

The Options Trader plan costs $69 per month and provides options chains data and numerous options market screeners.

The Earnings Trader plan costs $79 per month and provides access to the Options and Earnings Options strategy screeners and various earnings report pattern tools. 

The Total Access plan costs $99 per month and includes access to everything Market Chameleon offers. To maximize Market Chameleon’s potential, you really need the Total Access plan. It enables you to piece together all of the platform’s tools in a way that the other plans don’t. 

All paid plans come with a 7-day free trial.

Market Chameleon Video Review

Market Chameleon Features Breakdown

Market Chameleon is very powerful, although it also has many features that feel redundant. In our opinion, Market Chameleon is uniquely suited for trading options around earnings season. We’ll focus on the Total Access plan, which is what you’ll need to develop earnings-based options strategies.

Unusual Options Volume Screen 

The free unusual options volume screener is useful to refresh throughout the day to find signals to investigate further. It shows you which tickers are seeing above-average volume, which could be a sign of institutional activity.

Keep in mind that with the growing interest in options trading, there are more opportunities to get faked out on volume surges. We’ve seen many instances of tremendous options volume on rumor-driven stock price spikes, only to have premium evaporate the next day. In other words, don’t chase anything just because it pops up on the volume screener. 

Watch Lists

Setting up and monitoring watch lists is a core feature of Market Chameleon. Users can scan through various screens like earnings lists to add any stocks to a watch list simply by clicking the “+” next to the company name. Users can create different watch lists complete with alert triggers. The process of finding stocks and storing them in personalized watch lists is an excellent way to track opportunities. 

Options Chains 

Finding and analyzing potential options trades is a key function of Market Chameleon. Options chains can be accessed for any stock along with various data, including the Greeks, liquidity stats, and time and sales. The layouts are intuitively designed and configurable to include just the data you want.     

Earnings Calendar and Tools

Earnings season consistently generates the most activity in the markets linked to the most material fundamental data. Market Chameleon has a comprehensive earnings calendar and some very compelling tools to find opportunities into, during, and after earnings reports.

One of our favorites is the Stock Price Patterns Around Earnings feature. This shows how a stock’s price moved before, during, and after earnings over the past several quarters. Some stocks have a movement pattern, which could offer an opportunity for short-term trading. Of course, you’ll also want to interpret this data in the context of the macro market sentiment at the time of each earnings release.

The Options Outcomes Around Earnings displays how options strategies performed during earnings reports. Market Chameleon displays the average return or loss implementing various strategies like Selling out-of-the-money (OTM) calls or OTM puts for a stock.

Earnings Options Strategy Screener

Earnings season is the bread-and-butter period for options moves. Money can be made before and after an earnings report. Many novice traders take a pure directional bet on earnings reports (often paying heavy premiums) on a binary result. Market Chameleon enables traders to utilize a broader range of strategies to develop numerous income-generating strategies to diversify your trades. 

The Earnings Options Strategy Screener enables traders to configure the filters they are looking for with upcoming earnings traders. It’s one of our favorite features of Market Chameleon because it allows you to prepare for earnings ahead of time and collect income from options premiums.

We like to collect premiums heading into an earnings report and scan for stocks that spike in IV into the report. Some of the most effective scans are the Covered Call (collect income ahead of earnings release), Naked Put (a risky strategy only for experienced traders who can afford to have shares assigned), Call Spread, Put Spread, and At-The-Money (ATM) Straddle screeners. Beginners should limit themselves to covered calls and debit spread trades and avoid any naked trades to limit their downside risk. Usually, naked options trades require at least level 3 options trading permissions and sufficient capital to offset margin calls. 

News 

There is a browser-based news feed that pulls headlines from various free sources. It’s not real-time nor streaming, but it can be useful for finding press releases related to a specific company you’re researching.

Customization and Layout

Market Chameleon’s browser-based platform could use an overhaul. The site feels clunky and challenging to navigate at times, with numerous tabs that aren’t organized in an intuitive way. We got used to it eventually, but this is an area where the Market Chameleon platform could significantly improve.

Platform Differentiators

While there are numerous options trading and analysis services on the market, Market Chameleon tools are unique and intuitively designed to generate compelling data-driven trading ideas. The navigation is clunky, but the results are compelling. We’ve been able to significantly bolster trading ideas heading into each earnings season. 

Want to see how Market Chameleon compares to other services? Read some of our reviews of other options scanners below:

What Type of Trader is Market Chameleon Best For?

Market Chameleon is best suited for experienced options traders seeking income generation strategies and uncovering hidden trading opportunities. It’s especially powerful for traders who focus on earnings season to find opportunities.

Stock traders will find more limited functionality, as there are few especially unique stock research tools in the Stock Trader plan.

Beginners can use Market Chameleon, but you should expect a learning curve. The platform doesn’t provide much explanation about how you’re supposed to use the screeners or strategies. Some of the strategies, like naked puts, can be quite risky.

Is Market Chameleon Worth It?

Market Chameleon offers some unique and powerful options scanning tools, especially for trading around earnings reports. The stock and options screeners are quite different from what’s available from other services, so it’s definitely worth giving Market Chameleon a look.

One thing to keep in mind is that you’ll probably need the top-tier Total Access plan to get the most out of Market Chameleon. The other plans offer piecemeal access to the platform’s features, when really they’re designed to work together to help you find opportunities and execute your strategy. If you just buy one of the lesser premium subscriptions on their own, it’s difficult to get the whole picture around a ticker.

The company offers a free trial that allows you to test out the features before committing to a paid subscription. Take Market Chameleon for a 7-day test drive to see if it is the right platform for you.

Pros

Deep options data and strategy scans

Earnings options strategy tools are unique and very productive

Easy watch list creation, alerts, and tracking functionality

Options chain back-testing and data-driven strategy ideas

Free options screens and daily ideas list

Pre and post-market screener tool to kickstart morning research

Cons

Most traders will need the Total Access plan to execute strategies

Outdated website and clunky browser-based navigation