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UOA has never really helped me. I haven't run into a trade that I am taking which had unusual options activity. I mean it would be listed, but didn't give me enough information to agree/disagree with me. Granted I only looked at barcharts when I was investigating it.

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Barchart while free it's having a lot of data that is actually not in the UOA category posted as UOA, i'm not sure how they get their data etc but it shows a bit of disconnect compared to what i would call unusual.

What would you call unusual? I mean there is value if you can guarantee that the person buying 1300 4/26 AAPL $207.50 calls is not hedging (Hypothetical trade here) because then it makes sense to follow it, or investigate why. However, in many cases there may be another trade either stock buy/short, or calls/puts spread out against multiple strikes/expiration's which can signal unusual trading but it's just a hedge or a calendar spread and so on.

That's the other part of the equation, you never know the intention of the buyer/seller and can only speculate. There's a general consensus on some types of orders going thru and the general expectation for those trades(ex. block vs split vs sweep, ITM OTM ATM and long term/short term expirations) where you can make a pretty good assumption but can never know for sure. Spreads are usually followed thru as being spreads and you can make that out as the trades go out together on the short/long legs etc.

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