New to options? Start here.

Five short steps, five worked examples and a plain-English glossary. No background needed, and everything here is research, not advice.

Start hereWorked examplesGlossary

Start here

Read these in order. Each takes about a minute.

  1. 01

    Strikes and expiries

    An option is a contract to buy (a call) or sell (a put) a stock at a set price, the strike, until a set date, the expiry. Every stock has many strikes and many expiries, and together they make up its options chain.

  2. 02

    Dealers, and why their hedging matters

    Dealers (market makers) are on the other side of most options trades. To stay neutral they buy or sell the stock as price moves. Where a lot of options sit at one strike, that hedging can slow price down near it or speed it up through it. GEX measures how much.

  3. 03

    Call wall, put wall and flip

    The call wall is the heavy strike above price that often acts as a ceiling. The put wall is the heavy strike below that can act as a floor. The flip is where dealer gamma turns from positive (calmer, range-bound) to negative (faster moves).

  4. 04

    Reading the Dealer Map

    Strikes run down the side, expiries across the top, and each cell shows dealer gamma at that strike. Find price, then the nearest wall above and below, then check which side of the flip you are on. Every board also explains itself in plain English. Try it on the free SPY board.

  5. 05

    Plan the trade with a stop

    Before you trade, write down an entry, a stop and a target. The Trade Planner sizes the trade from your account and risk %, shows what it costs in dollars and R at each level, and checks it against your own rules. Levels describe positioning, not what price will do next.

Open the free SPY boardHow Market Hunt works

Worked examples

The board on the left, what price did on the right. These show typical ways levels have behaved. They are not trades or predictions.

Example 1

The Anchor held as the floor

The board
734Call wall+$11.7M
728+$6.4M
725Price is here
722−$2.1M
720Anchor−$18.1M
What happened
  • Before the open, the Anchor at 720 was the heaviest strike on the board.
  • Price slid into it and slowed down there, the kind of reaction its weight suggested.
  • The call wall at 734 marked the top of the range, where the bounce ran out of room.
Example 2

A slippery put wall, not a cushion

The board
731+$5.1M
729Price is here
727−$0.2M
726−$0.1M
724Put wall−$18.4M
What happened
  • The biggest level below price (724) had negative gamma: a floor that tends to give way rather than hold.
  • The strikes just above it were nearly empty, so nothing slowed price on the way down.
  • Negative-gamma floors have often sped a move up instead of catching it.
Example 3

A positive-gamma call wall: the ceiling that held

The board
595Call wall+$14.8M
592+$1.4M
590Price is here
587−$2.0M
585Put wall−$8.3M
What happened
  • The call wall at 595 was the strongest positive strike: a sticky ceiling.
  • Rallies pushed into it and stalled. With positive gamma, dealer hedging sells into the rally.
  • Positive-gamma days tend to move back and forth in a range rather than run.
Example 4

A break through the lid: the squeeze that ran

The board
455−$0.2M
453Lid−$11.2M
451Price is here
450Shelf+$9.8M
448+$1.1M
What happened
  • A sticky shelf at 450 (positive gamma) sat just under a slippery lid at 453 (negative gamma).
  • Price pushed up through the lid and dealer hedging chased it, so the move sped up instead of stalling.
  • Almost nothing sat above 453, so there was little to slow the run.
Example 5

Wall, Anchor and Flip, all at work

The board
7510Flip+$219.8M
7500Anchor+$2.5B
7495Price is here
7490+$447.1M
7475−$335.3M
What happened
  • Net gamma was strongly positive: a calm day. The flip at 7510 capped the top.
  • The Anchor at 7500 was by far the heaviest strike and pulled price toward it all session.
  • Rallies bumped 7500, dips were bought near 7490, and price stayed in that range all day.

Glossary

Every term Market Hunt uses, in plain English.

The big threeThe levels on the boardMarket regimeOptions flowOptions Greeks (optional)Calendar eventsOther terms you'll seeTrade planner

The big three

GEXGamma Exposure
Gamma exposure: how much dealers have to buy or sell to stay hedged as price moves. Positive GEX means their hedging buys dips and sells rallies, which tends to slow price down. Negative GEX means their hedging chases the move, which tends to speed it up.
Example: If SPY shows +$500M of GEX at $750, dealers have a lot at stake there, and price often slows down near that strike.
VEXVanna Exposure
How dealer hedging changes when implied volatility (IV) moves. Large vanna levels show where a jump or drop in IV could add to a move or take the steam out of it. Less important than GEX, but worth a look on days when volatility is moving.
Dealer positioning
The total exposure (long or short, calls or puts) that market-makers are sitting on. We compute it from the public options chain. It shows where dealer hedging is likely to hold price back or push it along — it does not say where price will go.

The levels on the board

Call wall (Ceiling)
The strike with the most positive gamma above the current price. It often acts like a ceiling: rallies into it tend to slow down.
Example: SPY at $746, call wall at $750. Expect price to grind into $750 and reverse.
Put wall (Floor)
The heaviest strike below the current price. If its gamma is positive (sticky), it often cushions dips like a floor. If its gamma is negative (slippery), it is more of a trapdoor: once price slips through, the move can speed up.
Gamma flip
The price level where total dealer gamma crosses from positive to negative. Above the flip, price tends to move in a calmer range. Below it, moves tend to be faster and run further. Which side price is on sets the tone for the day.
Anchor
The single strike with the heaviest dealer gamma anywhere on the board (positive or negative). When its gamma is positive it often works like a magnet; when negative, it can fling price away once it breaks.

Market regime

CALM
Net positive gamma. Dealer hedging sells rallies and buys dips, so price tends to stay in a range.
WILD
Net negative gamma. Dealer hedging chases moves instead of leaning against them, so moves in either direction can run further. Stops matter more.
PINNED
Price stuck near one heavy strike, often into expiry. Expect back-and-forth rather than a trend.
CHOP / BALANCED
Mixed positioning, no dominant side. The levels are not pulling strongly either way, so price action matters more than the board.

Options flow

GEX: ABSORBED
A large options trade printed, but dealer hedging at that strike works against its direction. The flow may be bullish, yet the hedging tends to slow the move down.
GEX: ACCELERATED
A large options trade printed, and dealer hedging works in the same direction, so the hedging can add to the move.
Sweep
An aggressive order that ate multiple exchanges' offers at once. Usually a large trader in a hurry to get in.
0DTE
Zero days to expiration: options that expire today (mostly SPX and SPY). Cheap, fast-moving, and with the biggest gamma effects.

Options Greeks (optional)

Gamma (γ)
How fast an option's delta changes as price moves. Big gamma means dealers have to hedge more as price moves. This is what GEX aggregates.
Delta (Δ)
How much an option moves for every $1 the underlying moves. 0.50 delta = option moves $0.50 per $1 stock move.
Vanna
How delta changes when volatility changes. This is what VEX aggregates.
Charm
How delta decays with time. Matters most into the final hour of 0DTE.
Theta (θ)
Daily time decay — what you lose every day holding an option, all else equal.
IVImplied Volatility
The market's expectation of how much the stock will move, baked into option prices. High IV = options expensive, expected big move.

Calendar events

FOMC
Federal Open Market Committee — the Fed's interest-rate decision (8 times/year). High-volatility event for stocks + bonds.
NFP
Non-Farm Payrolls — monthly jobs report (first Friday). Major macro mover.
CPI
Consumer Price Index — monthly inflation read. Inflation surprises move rates fast, which moves stocks.
PPI
Producer Price Index — wholesale inflation, leading indicator vs CPI.
OPEX
Options expiration — the 3rd Friday of every month, when most monthly options expire. Heavy gamma effects.
RTH
Regular Trading Hours — 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET, when US stock exchanges are open.

Other terms you'll see

ATM
At The Money — option strike equal to (or very close to) the current stock price.
OTM
Out of The Money — strike further from current price (no intrinsic value).
ITM
In The Money — strike closer to or past current price (has intrinsic value).
RVOL
Relative Volume — today's volume vs the average. 2× RVOL = trading twice the usual volume.
ATR
Average True Range — the typical daily price range. Used to size position stops.
Confluence
When multiple independent signals (technical setup, volume, sector strength, options flow) line up at the same place.
Tape
The live order flow — every print that goes through. 'Reading the tape' = watching speed + size + direction of trades.

Trade planner

RR multiple
Your risk unit. One R is the distance from entry to stop times your size — the dollars the stop costs. A trade that closes at +2R made twice that; a trade closed at the stop is −1R. Every number in the planner and the report is in R so a $250 trade and a $2,500 trade compare fairly.
Example: Entry $746, stop $744, 125 shares: 1R = $250. Closing at $750 is +2R = +$500.
Risk %
How much of your account the stop would cost, as a percent. The planner turns it into a size: 0.5% of $50,000 is $250, and a $2 stop distance buys 125 shares. Your max risk % is the ceiling every plan is checked against.
R:RReward-to-risk
How many R your first target pays. Entry $746, stop $744, target $750 is 2.0R — T1 pays twice what the stop costs. A min R:R rule marks any plan below that number as breaking a rule.
Expectancy
The average R one closed trade made over a window. The discipline report shows it twice — for trades that kept your rules and for trades that broke one — so you can see what breaking a rule has actually cost you. Measured after the fact from closed trades; it is not a forecast.
Hit rate
The share of closed trades that ended above 0R. A count of what already happened, not a prediction. A low hit rate with a high expectancy is a normal shape for a trend trader — the two lines are read together.
Premium
An option's price per share. One contract covers 100 shares, so a $2.40 premium costs $240 per contract. Option plans in the planner are priced in premium: your entry, stop and take-profits are what the contract trades at, not the stock.
Example: 3 SPY 560 calls bought at $2.40 cost $720. Sold at $3.60, the trade made $360.
Breakeven at expiry
Where the stock has to be when the option expires for the contract to be worth exactly what you paid. For a call it is the strike plus the premium; for a put, the strike minus the premium. Before expiry the contract also carries time value, so it can be worth more than that.
Example: A 560 call bought for $2.40 breaks even at expiry with the stock at $562.40.
DTEDays to expiry
Calendar days until the option expires, counted from today's New York date. 0 DTE means it expires today. The planner's min days to expiry rule marks option plans that expire sooner than the number you set.
Runner
The contracts you keep after every take-profit step has sold. A runner has no target in the plan — you decide when to sell it and log that sale yourself.
Example: 5 contracts, with 2 sold at T1 and 2 at T2: the last contract is the runner.
Estimate (option value)
What the planner calculates a contract would be worth at another stock price or date. It is Black-Scholes with today's implied volatility held fixed, marked with ≈ or "est.". Real prices also move with IV, time left and the bid/ask spread, so an estimate is a way to read the plan, not a forecast.
Partial exitSelling some contracts
Selling part of an option position and keeping the rest. The journal records each sale with its contracts, premium, time and reason. Each sale books its share of the trade's R, and the trade closes — and counts in the report — when nothing is left.
Example: 3 contracts filled at $5.99, 1 sold at $8.91: that sale booked +$292, about +0.3R of the trade, with 2 contracts still open.
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Educational market research, not investment advice. Examples are illustrative and every session is different: the board describes positioning, never what price will do next.