Frequently Asked Questions
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About Lavender
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Lavender Trading Solutions provides independently computed option Greeks — dividend-aware, early-exercise-aware, with calibrated forward prices — ticking continuously across the full OPRA universe (~6,000 names). One analytics engine powers three products: a free, private, on-demand volatility analytics on Discord, a production REST API via Gateway, and a professional desktop workstation in Terminal. Whatever you use, you're working from the same numbers, computed the same way, every time.
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Lavender was founded by Jonathan K. Weedon, a technologist and market architect with more than two decades of experience building professional-grade options systems. He founded Derivix in the mid-2000s — writing every core component himself, from pricing models and volatility engines to risk systems and the full execution stack — before its acquisition by FlexTrade.
He then spent more than a decade gaining deep experience in how elite volatility operations actually work at the highest levels of the industry. He brings that perspective, and the independent vision that has driven his career from the start, to Lavender Trading Solutions.
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Lavender is built for options and volatility traders, quantitative researchers, and developers whose P&L depends on the accuracy of their Greeks — and who know that one source isn't enough.
It is especially relevant for anyone working with American options, dividend-paying underlyings, or strategies where early exercise is a real consideration. It is not a signals service or trade recommendation platform.
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Most platforms compute greeks using Black-Scholes or simplified models with continuous dividend yield assumptions. These work reasonably well in normal conditions but produce materially wrong hedge ratios near ex-dates, deep ITM, and for short-dated American options where early exercise is a real consideration.
Lavender uses discrete dividend modeling, explicit early exercise handling, and calibrates the implied borrow rate per expiry — enforcing put-call parity and producing consistent call and put greeks even in hard-to-borrow names.
If your current provider already handles these correctly, running Lavender gives you an independent second source. Where two good models agree, you have confirmation. Where they diverge, you have a signal worth investigating.
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No. Lavender is an analytics and decision-support system designed to work alongside your existing brokers and execution relationships. It provides independent Greeks and risk analytics — it does not execute trades or act as a broker in any capacity.
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No. Lavender provides analytics, models, and tools so you can make better-informed decisions yourself. It does not provide trade signals, investment advice, or recommendations of any kind.
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Lavender currently offers three products built on the same analytics engine:
Lavender Discord — a command-driven analytics tool — run /surf, /skew, /term, /greeks and get instant volatility charts on any ticker in Discord. Free to join, 100 commands/day.
Lavender Gateway — a locally-running REST API server that delivers independently computed Greeks and implied volatility across ~6,000 OPRA names. Nine vendor-compatible endpoints, extended Greeks through third order. Available now — start with a 7-day free trial, then $450/month per instance.
Lavender Terminal — a professional desktop workstation for visualizing risk, navigating options chains, and building trade ideas — powered by the same analytics engine as Gateway. Available now for Windows - start with a 7-day free trial, then $390/user/month.
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Gateway is a locally-running analytics server that computes implied volatility and Greeks and delivers them via REST API. It runs on your machine at localhost:2112. Nothing routes through a remote server — your data stays in your environment. It includes nine vendor-compatible endpoints so your existing code works with a one-line host change. Available now with a 7-day free trial, then $450/instance/month, covering up to 3 users.
→ View the documentation at docs.lavender-ts.com
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Lavender Terminal is a professional desktop workstation — a live options Montage, a true volatility surface, a complete greeks picture, and a whole-book risk-and-scenario engine — all on Lavender's own independently computed greeks.
Read the volatility, model the trade, and see what your whole book could do next — with your live positions from the broker you already use, all in one workspace.
Available now for Windows. Start with a 7-day free trial, then $390/month per seat, month-to-month. A payment method is required to start: cancel before day 7 and you won't be charged. Start your trial now.
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Lavender Discord is the free, private way to run Lavender's engine on demand. Type /surf, /skew, /term, or /greeks and get an instant, professional-grade volatility chart for any ticker — privately, with no installation, code, or browser. 100 commands per day, free.
→ Join Lavender Discord
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Discord provides the simplest possible interface for on-demand analytics — no installation, no code, no browser, just a command and an instant chart, private to you. It's the entry point into the Lavender ecosystem and the fastest way to see what the analytics engine produces.
The Products
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No. Gateway does not deliver bid/ask, volume, open interest, or trade data. It computes and delivers independently calculated Greeks and implied volatility. Market data fields in vendor-compatible responses are present only for wire compatibility — they are zeroed or null. Gateway is an analytics engine, not a data feed.
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Lavender computes both. Theta is the conventional partial derivative — the standard per-calendar-day rate that most systems report. Decay measures the expected price change from now to the same time on the next trading day, accounting for weekends and holidays.
The two values are close on a typical weekday but diverge significantly on Friday afternoons and around holidays. If today is Friday, theta shows one abstract day of decay. Decay shows what your position actually loses over the three-day weekend.
Theta is available on all endpoints including all vendor compatibility layers. Decay is available on the native Lavender API.
→ Full explanation at docs.lavender-ts.com/concepts/greek-conventions
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Core Greeks: delta, gamma, vega, theta, rho, and decay.
Second-order Greeks: vanna, volga, charm, veta, and vera.
Third-order Greeks: speed, zomma, color, and ultima.
Additional first-order Greeks: epsilon (dividend sensitivity) and lambda (leverage ratio).
Extended Greeks are available via the native Lavender API using the greeks=all parameter. All are computed robustly across the full chain — not just at-the-money.
→ Full Greek conventions and definitions at docs.lavender-ts.com/concepts/greek-conventions
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Lavender models dividends as discrete cash events — not as a continuous yield. This produces accurate greeks near ex-dividend dates, where continuous yield assumptions create material errors in delta and other sensitivities.
The borrow rate is calibrated per expiry to enforce put-call parity and produce consistent call and put greeks, even in hard-to-borrow names.
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Yes. Gateway explicitly models early exercise behavior and computes optimal exercise boundaries across strikes and maturities. This produces accurate Greeks for deep ITM calls near ex-dividend dates — a regime where European-style models produce systematically wrong results.
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IV is expressed as an annualized decimal. 0.25 means 25% annualized IV. 1.50 means 150% annualized IV.
→ Full IV conventions at docs.lavender-ts.com/concepts/greek-conventions
The Analytics
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You will receive setup instructions on the success page immediately after checkout. The process is straightforward:
Download Gateway.exe
Run it and enter the email address associated with your subscription
The gateway starts on localhost:2112
Paste this into any browser to see Greeks immediately — no code required:
http://localhost:2112/l1/greeks?root=SPY&format=html
A full Greeks chain for SPY renders as an HTML table in your browser. Most users are running Greeks within the hour.
→ Full quickstart guide at docs.lavender-ts.com/getting-started/quickstart
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No. Access is configured at the gateway level when you run gateway.exe and enter your subscription email. All REST endpoints work without authentication headers on individual calls. If you're migrating from a vendor, your existing API keys and auth headers stay in your code exactly as they are — the gateway accepts and ignores them. Since it runs on localhost, your vendor credentials never leave your machine.
→ Authentication details at docs.lavender-ts.com/getting-started/authentication
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Gateway provides compatibility layers for nine vendors: Alpaca, AlphaVantage, Intrinio, LiveVol, MarketData.app, Orats, Polygon.io, ThetaData, and Tradier. Each layer replicates the wire format of that vendor's options endpoint — same JSON structure your code already handles, just served from localhost. ThetaData v2 and v3 are both supported.
One scaling note: eight of nine compatibility layers use the same per-1% convention as the Lavender API for vega and rho. ThetaData is the exception — it returns vega, rho, and epsilon per unit (100× larger).
→ Full vendor guides at docs.lavender-ts.com
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If you're already using one of the nine compatible vendors, the change is one line — point your existing code at localhost:2112 instead of your current host. No other changes needed.
If you're building a new integration, the native Lavender API supports JSON, CSV, NDJSON, and HTML output. A basic Python integration is a few lines of code.
→ Quickstart with code examples at docs.lavender-ts.com/getting-started/quickstart
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Yes. Gateway supports Excel integration.
→ Excel setup guide at docs.lavender-ts.com/getting-started/excel
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Yes. All client-facing connections use REST/HTTPS only. There are no WebSocket requirements.
Integration
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Everything you need is on the access page immediately after checkout, and we email it to you as well. The process:
Download Terminal.exe — a single signed file, no installer.
Save it to your Desktop (not just Downloads).
Double-click to open. The first launch takes a minute or two while it sets up.
Sign in with the same email you used at checkout to activate your seat.
Terminal opens with a sample book already loaded, so the Montage, the 3D volatility surface, and every risk and scenario view are live the moment you sign in.
Swap in your own names and positions whenever you're ready.
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Terminal runs on Windows Desktop 10 or later, or Windows Server 2016 or later. It ships as a single signed executable. There's no installer to run and nothing to configure.
Terminal is not currently available for macOS or Linux. If that's what you're on, email info@lavender-ts.com and we'll talk through your options.
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Yes — and it's about the file being new, not unsafe. Because Terminal is newly released, Windows and your browser haven't seen it enough times yet to recognize it, so you may see a one-time prompt.
If your browser says "Terminal.exe isn't commonly downloaded" — the highlighted button is usually Delete. Don't click it. Click the small down-arrow or More actions next to it and choose Keep.
If Windows says "Windows protected your PC" — click More info, then Run anyway.
Check the publisher: it will show as Jonathan Weedon (Nashua, NH) — Lavender's founder and the verified signer of Terminal. Seeing that name confirms you have the genuine file.
These prompts stop appearing as more traders download the file.
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No. Terminal works on its own, and it opens with a sample book already loaded so you can explore every view immediately.
If you want to see your own positions, you can connect Interactive Brokers, Tastytrade, or Tradier — Terminal reads your live positions and marks them against Lavender's own greeks, so every risk and scenario view reflects the book you actually hold.
Terminal never places trades. The broker connection is read-only. You can also paper-trade inside Terminal and track it as a live position.
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Terminal works with your existing market-data subscription. Connect ThetaData, Alpha Vantage, or Databento and Terminal runs on the data you already pay for. Your API keys stay on your machine — never uploaded, never stored by Lavender.
Need a different broker or market-data provider connected? Email info@lavender-ts.com and tell us what you use.
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Yes. Your trades, your positions and sizes, and your broker and data credentials all stay on your machine, inside your own environment. Lavender never sees them and never stores them. What you hold and how you trade is yours alone.
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Yes. We offer a 7-day free trial with full access to the workstation.
A payment method is required to start. Cancel any time before the 7 days end and you won't be charged. After day 7, your subscription continues at $390 per seat per month, month-to-month. Try Terminal now: terminal.lavender-ts.com
Using Lavender Terminal
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Gateway starts with a 7-day free trial. After that, $450 per instance per month, covering up to 3 users. Month-to-month — no annual commitment, no setup fees, cancel any time.
For teams running multiple instances or needing more than 3 users, contact us at info@lavender-ts.com.
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Terminal is $250 per user per month after a 7-day free trial. Month-to-month, no annual contract, cancel any time. A payment method is required to start your trial; cancel before day 7 in your Stripe portal and you won't be charged.
→ Start your trial at terminal.lavender-ts.com
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Free. Run up to 100 commands per day — private, on-demand volatility analytics for individual use.
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Test it for free for 7 days, then expense the $450/month. At most firms, $450/month falls within individual discretionary spending authority for tools and subscriptions. Many users put it on a corporate card without a procurement conversation.
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Yes. Lavender Gateway includes a 7-day free trial with full access — same analytics engine, all vendor-compatible endpoints, all Greeks.
A payment method is required to start your trial. Cancel any time before the 7 days end in your Stripe customer portal and you won't be charged. After day 7, your subscription continues at $300 per instance per month, month-to-month.
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You'll receive access immediately upon checkout — through the success page. Also check your email for a message from us confirming your trial and access details. Most users are running Greeks within minutes. If anything is unclear during setup, reply directly to that email — we'll be happy to help.
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You can cancel any time in a few clicks. Here's exactly how:
Go to the Lavender billing portal.
Enter the email address you used when you subscribed, and Stripe will send you a secure link to sign in.
Once you're in, click your active plan.
You'll see the product you're subscribed to and a Cancel plan button. Click it and confirm.
That's it. If you cancel during your free trial, you won't be charged at all. If you cancel later, you keep access through the end of your current billing period.
Month-to-month means exactly that. No annual commitment, no cancellation fees, no phone call.
Having trouble? Email info@lavender-ts.com and a real person will help you.
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Everything is available now.
Lavender Gateway — 7-day free trial, then $450/instance/month (up to 3 users).
Lavender Terminal — 7-day free trial, then $390/seat/month, on Windows.
Lavender Discord — free, private, on-demand analytics, open to use today.