Learn how dealer positioning actually moves price.
No jargon, no mysticism. Several of these answer the question by measuring it — including the times the popular answer turned out to be wrong, which we have left in.
Every element on the map, the structures that repeat, the three comparison reads, and the discipline that keeps a correct read from becoming a bad trade. The articles below go deep on single questions; this is the whole read, in order.
We measured it
Questions with a real answer, and the sample size behind it.
Every options platform draws a call wall and a put wall. We tested 742,863 of them against a random price the same distance away. The result was not what we expected.
We graded all seven patterns our map names against a distance-matched control across 455,905 boards. Two carry a real edge, one means the opposite of what it looks like, and most tell you speed rather than direction.
The expected move is the range the options market implies for a session. Nearly every calculator derives it from a bell curve — and real trading days have fatter tails than that.
Implied volatility is what options charge. Realized is what the stock delivers. The gap between them is the most durable edge in options — and it runs in both directions.
Foundations
Start here if the vocabulary is new.
Gamma exposure measures how much hedging dealers are forced to do as price moves. Here is what GEX is, why its sign matters more than its size, and how to read it without the jargon.
Dealer gamma decides whether the market absorbs moves or amplifies them. Knowing which regime you are in tells you what kind of session to expect before you place a trade.
The gamma flip is the price where aggregate dealer gamma crosses from positive to negative — the line between a market that absorbs moves and one that amplifies them.
Options expiring today carry enormous gamma and almost no time value. Here is why same-day expiry concentrates hedging pressure and what that does to intraday price.
Market makers hedge the options they sell, and that hedging is mechanical, continuous, and measurable. It is the reason options positioning shows up in price at all.
Most levels on your chart will never be touched.
FlowMonkey prices every level by whether your ticker can actually reach it today, and re-sorts as the session burns down.
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