Auto-refreshing charts are now available on OptionCharts. Charts and views update in the background with the latest option market data, so you no longer need to refresh the page to see the latest data.

Background

Over the past year, OptionCharts traffic has grown 4x. As it grew, we started running into the limits of our existing architecture. So we spent the past few weeks focused on performance and scaling work, including a significant architectural rework. Since making those changes, we've seen real improvements in both performance and data quality.

That work laid the groundwork for auto-refreshing charts. Continuously refreshing charts puts meaningfully more load on our services, and it wasn't something we wanted to ship without scaling up our infrastructure.

Under the hood, auto-refresh is background polling for new data continuously. Charts are updated in place so zoom, annotations, and series visibility stay put. We also had to be careful about when not to refresh: open menus, in-progress interactions, and off-hours all need to leave the last good view alone. That combination of efficient polling, partial updates, and state preservation are the details that are needed to get right to make the feature feel seamless instead of disruptive.

Auto-refresh has been one of the most requested features from our community and I'm glad to finally have it out.

How it works

Auto-refresh keeps every chart and view updated with the latest market data throughout the trading day.

It's available today for all Premium and Ultimate subscribers. Ultimate subscribers get the fastest auto-updates, with up to 1s refresh rate on option contract quotes.

Your zoom level, annotations, and filter settings all stay intact across refreshes, so the data updates without losing your place on the page.

Turning it on or off

Auto-refresh is enabled by default on Premium and Ultimate accounts. To turn it on or off, go to Account Settings > Chart Settings > Auto-refresh Charts.

As always, your feedback is welcome. Contact us anytime.