# SPY and QQQ Gamma Levels: Walls, Flip and SPX Ratio Source: SquawkFlow URL: https://squawkflow.com/learn/spy-qqq-gamma-levels Category: Options Greeks Published: 2026-09-30 Type: Explainer > How SPY and QQQ gamma levels are built, why dividing SPX levels by 10 drifts, where the ETF chains carry their own walls, and where to read them free. --- ## Two ways to get a SPY or QQQ gamma level There are two honest ways to answer "where are the SPY and QQQ gamma levels today," and they give different numbers. The first treats the ETFs as satellites of their index. SpotGamma's page on [GEX levels for SPY, QQQ and futures](https://spotgamma.com/gex-levels-spy-qqq-futures/) argues that gamma "is computed at the complex level": SPX, SPY and ES options all hedge into the same S&P 500 market, and NDX, QQQ and NQ into the Nasdaq-100, so you take the index levels and convert them. Its rule of thumb is to "divide by 10" for SPX to SPY and to "divide by roughly 41 (the ratio drifts; check it periodically)" for NDX to QQQ. The second computes levels from each ETF's own option chain. SPY and QQQ are among the most heavily traded option chains anywhere, with their own open interest, their own strikes and their own expiration calendar, so they have their own call wall, put wall and zero-gamma flip. Neither view is wrong. They answer different questions, and a trader working in SPY or QQQ is better off knowing both and knowing where they diverge. The mechanics of the levels themselves are covered in the pillar guide to [SPX gamma levels](/learn/spx-gamma-levels); this article is about what changes when the underlying is an ETF. ## The index shortcut, and why the ratio is not 10 Converting index levels is quick, and it is roughly right. The catch is the word roughly. SPY began trading in January 1993 and trades near one-tenth of the S&P 500, but the two do not stay locked at 10 to 1. The fund carries a gross expense ratio of 0.0945% a year and pays its dividends quarterly, according to [State Street's SPY fund page](https://www.ssga.com/us/en/intermediary/etfs/state-street-spdr-sp-500-etf-trust-spy). The S&P 500 is a price index, so it does not drop when its members go ex-dividend. SPY does: as Cboe notes in its piece on [dividends and early exercise](https://www.cboe.com/insights/posts/dont-get-stuck-paying-the-dividend-on-your-short-trade), a security's price tends to decline by about the dividend amount on the ex-date. So the ratio steps every quarter and drifts in between. The drift is small in percentage terms and large in strikes. On SquawkFlow's own snapshots, SPX stood at 7,683.69 in the September 29, 2026 snapshot and SPY stood at 764.22 in the next morning's pre-open snapshot, a ratio of about 10.05. Our [SPX gamma page](/gex) had the SPX call wall at 7,800. Divide by 10 and you get 780 on SPY; divide by the actual ratio and you get about 776. SPY lists one-dollar strikes near the money, so the shortcut lands four strikes away from the converted level. On an instrument where the walls often sit only a few dollars from spot, four strikes is the difference between a level above the day's range and one inside it. The fix is mechanical: compute the ratio from live quotes each session, index price divided by ETF price, and convert with that. The same applies with more force to QQQ, where SpotGamma itself flags that the roughly 41 multiple drifts. ## Why SPY and QQQ carry their own gamma structure Even with a perfect conversion, an index level converted to SPY is still an index level. The SPY chain can concentrate its gamma somewhere else, for reasons that are structural rather than noise. **Different strikes.** SPX strikes cluster at five-point increments and big round numbers. SPY and QQQ list one-dollar strikes near spot, so their open interest spreads across a much finer ladder and the heaviest strike can sit at a number that has no SPX equivalent. **A denser calendar.** Both ETFs list an expiration every weekday. In a [November 2022 rule filing](https://cdn.cboe.com/resources/regulation/rule_filings/approved/2022/SR-CboeBZX-2022-056.pdf), Cboe's BZX exchange extended its short-term option program to Tuesday and Thursday expirations for SPY and QQQ, alongside the Monday and Wednesday series already listed and the standard Friday weeklies. Because gamma near the money rises steeply as expiration approaches, the nearest one or two expirations tend to dominate the ETF gamma map, and they turn over every single day. **American exercise and dividends.** Our [SPX vs SPY comparison](/learn/spx-vs-spy-options-differences) walks through the product differences in full. For gamma, the relevant one is that ETF options are American style and physically settled, and "all equity (single-stock) and ETF options are American style," in [Cboe's words](https://www.cboe.com/insights/posts/dont-get-stuck-paying-the-dividend-on-your-short-trade). Deep in-the-money calls can be exercised ahead of an ex-dividend date when the dividend exceeds their remaining time value. Those contracts carry little gamma, so this rarely moves a wall, but it does mean ETF open interest can shift around ex-dates in a way the European, cash-settled SPX chain never does. ## What the difference looks like on a real morning A single dated snapshot makes the point better than any argument. As of 07:01 ET on September 30, 2026, SquawkFlow's SPY ticker page published SPY at 764.22 with a call wall at 765, a put wall at 761 and a zero-gamma flip at 766. Converted at the live ratio, the SPX board from the prior session put the equivalent call wall near 776, the put wall near 756 and the flip near 763. Three things stand out, and all three generalise. First, the ETF walls were four dollars apart, tight around spot, while the converted index walls spanned twenty. The SPY chain was describing the next session; the index was describing the next several weeks. Second, the SPY flip sat above the SPY call wall. That is not an error. It happens because of how the call wall is defined, which brings up the most common source of confusion on any gamma board. Third, the SPY version of our [gamma heatmap](/gex-heatmap) for the same date showed why the SPY put wall was so close: of the roughly minus $1.47 billion of dealer gamma per 1% move at the 761 strike, about minus $1.37 billion sat in the contract expiring that day. That wall was built to vanish at the close. A level derived from the index would never tell you that. ## Call wall definitions differ, and it matters more on ETFs Providers do not agree on what a call wall is. FlashAlpha defines it as "the strike with the largest concentration of call gamma, typically the highest positive gamma strike above spot" in its [guide to the three levels](https://flashalpha.com/articles/call-wall-put-wall-gamma-flip-options-levels-explained). That sentence contains two definitions that usually coincide and sometimes do not. SquawkFlow's ticker pages use the first: the call wall is the strike at or above spot with the largest call-side gamma, and the put wall is the strike at or below spot with the largest put-side gamma. In the September 30 snapshot, the 765 strike carried about $788 million of call gamma per 1% move, the largest above spot, but also about $811 million of put gamma, for a net of roughly minus $23 million. By call gamma it is the wall. By net gamma it is not, and the flip landed a dollar higher at 766, where net gamma turned solidly positive. On a one-dollar strike ladder with heavy same-day put and call interest stacked at the same strikes, this split is common. So before comparing a SPY call wall from one site with another, check whether each is ranking call gamma or net gamma. The [call wall and put wall explainer](/learn/call-wall-put-wall-explained) covers how each tends to behave, and the [GEX flip guide](/learn/gex-flip-price-explained) covers why the flip is the regime line rather than a barrier. ## How to use SPY and QQQ levels together with the index A workable routine for an ETF trader: - **Start with the index regime.** Where spot sits against the SPX or NDX flip tells you whether the broad hedging book is damping or amplifying moves. That is the complex-level view, and it changes slowly. - **Convert index walls at the live ratio,** never at a hard-coded 10 or 41, and treat each converted level as a zone a couple of dollars wide. - **Overlay the ETF's own levels.** Where a SPY or QQQ wall lines up with a converted index level, independent books agree. Where they disagree, the ETF level is usually telling you about near-dated positioning. - **Check the expiry mix.** If an ETF wall is concentrated in today's expiration, expect it to matter into the close and not at all tomorrow. - **Respect the limits.** All of these levels are built from settled open interest plus an assumption about which side dealers hold. Scheduled macro events can overwhelm hedging flow entirely. ## Where to read SPY and QQQ gamma levels free SquawkFlow publishes both ETF views without a signup. The [SPY](/ticker/SPY) and [QQQ](/ticker/QQQ) ticker pages show the call wall, put wall and zero-gamma flip with per-strike call, put and net dealer gamma in dollars per 1% move. Open interest itself is deliberately not published there. The SPY and QQQ versions of the [gamma heatmap](/gex-heatmap), linked from the page, break the book out by strike and expiration, with the overnight change in open interest at each strike, which is how you see whether a wall lives in today's contract or next month's. The [SPX page](/gex) carries the index levels, including the vol trigger. One caution when moving between them: the ticker pages, the heatmaps and the SPX page are computed from different books and state their own coverage, so their net totals are not directly comparable. Compare levels, not headline totals, and compare each total only with its own history. *Educational content, not financial advice. See our [risk disclosure](/risk-disclosure).* --- ## Citation Source: SquawkFlow, https://squawkflow.com/learn/spy-qqq-gamma-levels Retrieved: 2026-10-08 17:12 ET Attribution: cite the page URL rather than a copied number. Levels are recomputed every session, so a number without its date is wrong within a day. SquawkFlow publishes market-structure data and education. Nothing here is investment advice, a price target or a recommendation, and we have no order execution.