Start Here: Dealer Positioning in Ten Sessions

HOW THIS WORKS

• Ten sessions, at your own pace. A session is a trading day, because every check needs the next day's data.
• Every task runs on a page of this site. No account, no broker, nothing to install.
• Every session ends with a check you can only run the next trading day. That is the feature.
• Nothing here places an order or tells you what to trade. The path teaches you to keep a log and read it.

YOUR PROGRESS

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1. 1How a chain is built: volume, open interest and the multiplier
2. 2Delta and gamma, the two Greeks that describe hedging
3. 3Who is on the other side: dealers and delta hedging
4. 4GEX: the map of where the hedging is
5. 5Walls, and what "held" actually means
6. 6The flip and the regime line
7. 7Expirations: 0DTE, OPEX and pinning
8. 8Volatility: implied, realized and the rule of 16
9. 9Flow: what the tape can and cannot tell you
10. 10Base rates, sample size and the Lab

1. How a chain is built: volume, open interest and the multiplier

An options chain is a table of standing positions, not a price feed. Before any positioning tool means anything you need to know which column is a position and which is today's noise.

READ

• How to Read an Options Chain: A Beginner's Guide: The columns, strike by strike, and what each one is for.
• Options Volume vs Open Interest: The Difference: Why volume resets every day and open interest does not.
• Option Multiplier: Why a quoted premium is per share and a contract is 100 of them, and the cases where it is not 100.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma heatmap. On the heatmap, read two tiles. 0DTE volume magnets are the strikes where today's same-day volume concentrated. Overnight OI change is the net contracts opened or closed across the chain since the prior settlement, with the three strikes that moved most. Write down the date, the magnet strikes, and the three biggest open interest movers with their contract counts.

Next session: Read the overnight OI change tile again. Did any of yesterday's volume magnets show up among the strikes that gained open interest? Volume told you what traded; the change in open interest tells you what stayed open, and a position opened and closed inside one session never appears in it at all.

After this session: You can tell volume from open interest on sight, and you know that only one of them is a position.

2. Delta and gamma, the two Greeks that describe hedging

Delta says how much an option moves with the underlying. Gamma says how fast that delta changes. Together they say what the person who sold the option has to do when price moves, which is the whole reason positioning data exists.

READ

• Options Greeks Explained: Delta, Gamma, Theta, and Vega: The four Greeks in plain terms. Delta and gamma are the two this path uses.
• What Is Delta Exposure (DEX)? Dealer Delta Explained: How dealer delta is added up across a whole chain. It compares itself with gamma exposure throughout, which session 4 introduces, so take the aggregation now and come back for the comparison.
• Vanna and Charm in Options: Why Deltas Drift: Why deltas drift even when price does not move: the second-order effects you will see on the heatmap.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma heatmap. On the heatmap, find the strike nearest to spot with the largest gamma. Write one line explaining why a dealer who is short gamma at that strike has to buy as price rises through it and sell as it falls.

Next session: Look again. Is that strike still the largest, or did the concentration move with spot? Note which.

After this session: Gamma stops being a number about an option and becomes a statement about what the hedger has to do.

3. Who is on the other side: dealers and delta hedging

Most listed options are sold by market makers who do not want a directional bet. They hedge, and the hedging is mechanical. Which way it pushes depends on whether they are long or short gamma in aggregate.

READ

• How Market Makers Hedge: Delta Hedging Mechanics Explained: The delta hedging loop, step by step.
• Dealer Positioning: How Market Makers Hedge: The four dimensions an aggregate dealer position is read across, and what each one implies for the tape.
• Negative Gamma Explained: Position vs Market: What changes when dealers are short gamma, for a single position and for the whole market.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma page. Read today's regime on the gamma page. Write what dealers have to do into a one percent rally and into a one percent selloff under that regime.

Next session: After the close, compare today's high-to-low range with yesterday's. Was it wider or narrower, and is that consistent with the regime you wrote down? One day proves nothing, which is exactly why the next session starts a log.

After this session: You can state the mechanical reason positive gamma damps moves and negative gamma amplifies them, without appealing to sentiment.

4. GEX: the map of where the hedging is

Gamma exposure adds up the hedging pressure strike by strike. The result is a map with three landmarks: the call wall, the put wall and the flip. This session starts the log that every later session adds a column to.

READ

• What is Gamma Exposure (GEX)? A Complete Guide: The definition, the sign convention and the assumptions.
• How to Calculate Gamma Exposure: GEX Formula: The formula, so the number on the page is not a black box.
• SPX Gamma Levels: Call Wall, Put Wall, Flip: What the call wall, put wall and flip each mean.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma page. Start a levels log. Today's row: the date, spot, the call wall, the put wall, the flip, and the distance in percent from spot to each of the three.

Next session: After the close, note which level price came within half a percent of, if any, and what happened in the hour after it got there.

After this session: The log exists. From here on every session is a row, and the rows are what will eventually tell you whether any of this predicts anything.

5. Walls, and what "held" actually means

A wall is the strike where the hedging is heaviest. Whether it held sounds like a simple yes or no, and it is not. A wall that price never reached held by default, so any rate that mixes those days with real tests is a number about distance rather than strength. That is why the gamma page publishes the walls and no hold rate, and why this session starts you counting your own.

READ

• Call Wall and Put Wall Explained: What They Are and When They Hold: The two levels, how they are found on the chain, when a call wall holds, and why the put wall runs on different flows.
• Hedge Wall: A vendor level whose construction is not published, and why that makes it impossible to check against the levels on this page.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma page. Read what the gamma page actually publishes: the call wall, the put wall, the vol trigger and the flip, the time the snapshot was captured, the regime, the net overnight change in open interest with the strike that moved most, and a link through to the per-strike dealer gamma behind those levels. There is no hold rate beside any of them, on purpose. Write today's call wall and put wall into your log with the distance in percent from spot to each, then add one column: did price come within half a percent of the wall today, yes or no.

Next session: Over the next five sessions, count outcomes on touched days separately from days the wall was never reached. Keep both counts and the sample size beside each. On any day you are unsure what the structure did, read the session log on the same page: it is a timestamped row per snapshot describing the change, with no directional call attached.

After this session: You never again take a hold rate on trust, ours or anyone else's, without asking how far the level was, what counted as a touch, and how many sessions are in the sample. And you have started the only count whose answers to those three you know.

6. The flip and the regime line

The flip is the price where aggregate dealer gamma changes sign. Above it, hedging leans against moves; below it, hedging leans into them. This session turns the regime into a forecast you can score.

READ

• GEX Flip Price Explained: The Volatility Regime Line: How the flip is found and why it moves.
• Vol Trigger Explained: The SpotGamma Volatility Threshold: The related line drawn from the same data, and why the two can disagree near a change of regime.
• Zero Gamma: The level, defined.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma page. Before the open, write down spot relative to the flip and predict one word for the day: wider or narrower than yesterday's range. After the close, log the outcome next to the prediction.

Next session: Five sessions of predictions against outcomes. Count the hits.

After this session: A regime call is a forecast, a forecast has a hit rate, and your log now measures it instead of remembering the days it worked.

7. Expirations: 0DTE, OPEX and pinning

Positioning is not one number. Gamma that expires today behaves differently from gamma that expires in three weeks, and expiration day concentrates the difference. The heatmap splits gamma by expiry so the same-day layer is visible on its own.

READ

• Zero DTE (0DTE) Options Trading: Strategy and Risk: What changes when the whole position expires by the close.
• Pin Risk and Options Expiration: Why Stocks Pin to Strikes: Why price sometimes gravitates to a strike into the close, and why sometimes it does not.
• Max Pain Theory in Options: Should You Trust It?: How the strike is computed from open interest, and when the pinning claim attached to it does and does not hold up.
• OPEX (Options Expiration): Monthly expiration, defined, and why the third Friday concentrates open interest.
• Gamma Pinning: The mechanism behind a pin.
• Expected Move: The move the options market has priced, which the next session uses.

On the terminal: the SPX gamma heatmap. On an expiration day, note the strike with the largest same-day gamma on the heatmap and the max pain strike for that expiry from the SPX max pain page. After the close, log where SPX settled relative to each, in points. Also uses the SPX max pain page.

Next session: Repeat on the next expiration. Two data points do not make a pattern; ten start to.

After this session: You can separate the same-day gamma layer from the weeklies, and your log now measures how far the close landed from max pain, which is the only way to test the pinning claim rather than believe it.

8. Volatility: implied, realized and the rule of 16

Implied volatility is the move the options market has priced. Realized volatility is the move that happened. The gap between them is the volatility risk premium, and the rule of 16 turns an annual number into a daily one you can check against the tape.

READ

• Implied Volatility Explained: What Every Trader Must Know: What the number means and where it comes from.
• Implied Volatility vs Realized Volatility, Explained: The gap, measured, and why it is usually positive.
• VIX Term Structure: Contango vs Backwardation Explained: What the curve of VIX futures says about the coming weeks.
• Rule of 16: The conversion, with the arithmetic.
• IV Crush: What happens to implied volatility after the event it was pricing.

On the terminal: the VIX term structure page. Note whether the curve is in contango or backwardation, and write down the front-month and back-month levels with the date they settled; the page shows futures settlements, which arrive the next trading day. The spot VIX index is not on the page, and the front-month future runs close to it outside of stress, so divide the front month by 16 and write down the implied one-day move in percent.

Next session: After the close, compare the implied move with the close-to-close change, not the high-to-low range, which runs about twice as large. A one standard deviation band is expected to break about one day in three, so over five sessions a count near two is the arithmetic working, not a finding. The premium is a different measurement: implied running above realized over a month, which the reads above quantify.

After this session: You understand why "implied volatility is high" is a description of price rather than a trade, and you can convert a VIX print into a one standard deviation daily move in your head.

9. Flow: what the tape can and cannot tell you

Options flow is the record of what traded. Heavy volume in one contract is a fact; its direction is an inference, and for most of it two opposite inferences fit equally well. This session makes you write both before you pick one.

READ

• What is Options Flow? Understanding Order Flow Tracking: The record, and the fields a print carries.
• Reading Options Flow for Direction: A Practical Guide: The inference, and where it breaks.
• Sweeps vs Blocks in Options Trading: What is the Difference?: Why the way an order was worked says something about who sent it.
• Unusual Options Activity: How to Detect Smart Money Moves: What counts as unusual against a baseline, and what does not.

On the terminal: the options flow page. Take the contract with the largest estimated premium on the flow page. That row is a day of aggregated volume in one contract, not a single trade, and the page says so beneath the table. Write two explanations that fit it equally well: one where it is a hedge against an existing position, one where it is a directional bet.

Next session: Note whether the underlying moved in the direction the "bet" explanation implied. Log it, and keep going until you have twenty rows.

After this session: You know that direction is not readable from aggregated contract activity, and your log will show you the hit rate of assuming it is.

10. Base rates, sample size and the Lab

The log now has at least twenty rows. This session turns it into the one thing most sources never show: a conditional rate reported next to its own base rate, with the sample size beside both. The Lab is this site doing the same thing to its own research, losers included.

READ

• Risk Management for Options: Sizing and Stops: Position sizing and drawdown, the arithmetic that survives a losing streak.
• Conviction Scoring Explained: AI-Powered Signal Synthesis: How this site scores its own signals, and what the score does not claim.

On the terminal: the Lab. From your log, compute three pairs: your own wall hold rate on days it was touched against the rate on all days; regime prediction hits against a coin flip; days realized exceeded implied against the count of days. Write each number with its sample size next to it. Then read how the Lab publishes every simulated trade from every engine, with the same discipline.

Next session: Does any conditional rate beat its base rate by more than the noise of twenty observations, which is roughly plus or minus twenty-two points around each rate and wider around their difference? If not, that is the finding, and it is a better one than a story about the days it worked.

After this session: You hold a touch-conditioned sample of your own. If there is a next step, it is paper trades, at least fifty logged before sizing anything, and nothing on this site will place them for you.

Limits

Dealer positioning is an assumption, not an observable. Open interest shows that a contract exists, never which side a dealer holds, so every level in this path inherits that convention. The gamma page publishes no hold rate for its walls, because the one it showed until 2026-08-31 was measured on a third-party definition of a wall and was dominated by how far that wall sat from spot. Session 5 asks you to count your own instead.

The block print tape on the dark pool page is modeled, not licensed data, and this path deliberately never sends you there. The DIX figure on that page is real.

Twenty observations put a confidence interval of roughly plus or minus twenty-two percentage points around a single rate, and wider around the difference between two rates. A log that size can describe what happened; it cannot yet establish an edge.

Nothing on this site is investment advice, a price target or a recommendation, and SquawkFlow has no order execution.