|VS3D™ · Trading|VS3D™ · TradingIn this session, you'll learn how to use positions to estimate the day's trading ranges, how to use the Gamma gradient for spread selection and directional exit targets, and how to use Charm to predict the directional bias active across different parts of the range. We discuss how we use the simple, risk-defined "butterfly" trade to exploit these three Key elements of the data every day.
VS3D Live Education: Trading, live in the dashboard, 11:00 AM ET today. About 30 minutes, no registration. We'll go through today's range and levels the way they're laid out below and then take your questions.
Join on Zoom Start the free 7-day trialThe trial opens the same dashboard, so you can hover the same fields while we're on them. This week's pages: positions, gamma and charm. Reading before or after: The Annotated Guide and the community onboarding guide.
This is Positions by Strike in the VS3D dashboard at 6:40 AM ET: the market maker net position in the Sep 3, 2026 expiry, one bar per strike, blue where they're long and gold where they're short. The dotted lines are spot plus and minus the $32.10 straddle. The levels under the chart are the ones from this morning's meeting: tests at the short lines, balance at the long clusters. Hover a bar to see which is which.
The market maker net position in today's expiry (Sep 3 PM), one bar per strike. Right of center they are long (blue), left of center they are short (gold). The dots are yesterday's 4 PM settle, so the bars minus the dots are what changed overnight. Capture 6:40 AM ET.
The at-the-money straddle at capture. The two dotted lines at 7,692.27 and 7,628.07 are spot plus and minus the straddle: the range the options market has priced for the session. Both second tests (7695 and 7635) sit right at those lines.
Two big long lines at the very top of the chart. They are above the 7695 test and the 7700 balance, so they only matter if the tape gets through the short cluster below them. Charm pulls toward longs, and these are where a late, extended rally would get pulled.
Six short lines in a row, with the biggest at 7710. Dealers short at the edge of the range = a test. The tape has to punch through all of it, and the framework says expect extension and rejection. Cross 7695 and the balance moves to 7700, but a balance inside a short cluster is weak and unstable.
The heaviest long cluster above spot, with the biggest line at 7675. This is the target on the upside: once 7665 is crossed, this is where the range resolves, and charm pulls toward it as the day decays. A strong balance is one where the longs sit on three adjacent strikes, not one.
One short line, five points above spot. The first thing the tape meets on a rally. Cross it and either we settle on 7675 or extend straight to 7695. Reject it and we reverse back through 7660.
Almost nothing on the line. Spot sits right on it, so it is the balance we open with, but with nothing holding it there, the first real test either side is what sets up the morning: 7665 five points up, 7645 fifteen points down.
Two short lines under spot, the 7645 one bigger. The first downside test. Cross 7645 and either the tape settles on the small long 7640 or extends to test 7635.
A modest long line wedged between two short ones. It counts as a balance once 7645 is crossed, but only while 7635 holds under it: a long line with a bigger short right below it is not a place to lean.
The biggest short line below spot, sitting a few points above the bottom of the straddle range. Cross it and the balance moves down to the strong 7625 cluster.
The heaviest long cluster below spot, with the 7630 line the second-biggest on the chart. If 7635 goes, this is where the range resolves, and it is the strike a downside fly would be short.
Three more long lines under the 7625 balance. Together with 7625 and 7630 they make the downside the longer side of the chart: more strikes long, one after another, with a clear peak. That is the shape the framework wants.
One short line between the long 7610 and the long 7600. Not a level in today's framework (it sits below the second test), but it is the kind of alternating line that keeps the very bottom of the chart from being a clean target.
The single largest long line in the expiry, well below the straddle range. Not a level for today unless 7635 goes and 7625 fails, but it is where the charm pull points if the downside really opens up.
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Reject a test = reverse tests and ranges until balance. Balance to open is 7660 (weak). Upside: 7665 then 7695. Cross 7665 and the balance is 7675 (strong), or the tape extends to test 7695; cross 7695 and the balance is 7700 (weak, unstable). Downside: 7645 then 7635. Cross 7645 and the balance is 7640 (weak, unstable), or the tape extends to test 7635; cross 7635 and the balance is 7625 (strong). Each test rejected reverses the tape back through the range toward balance.
Only in play once 7695 is crossed. Market makers are short from 7685 up to 7710, so a balance up here sits inside their short cluster: unstable by construction, with the long 7715 and 7720 lines just above it.
The second upside test, and the top of the straddle range (7,692). Short lines from 7685 through 7710. Cross it and the balance moves to 7700 (Weak / Unstable).
Market makers long 7670, 7675 and 7680: the heaviest long cluster above spot. Cross 7665 and this is where the upside resolves, unless the tape extends straight through to test 7695.
Short 7665, five points above spot. The first upside test. Cross it and the tape either settles on 7675 (Strong) or extends to test 7695.
The opening balance, right where spot sits. Almost nothing on the line itself, which is why it is weak: the strong balances are 15 points either side of it, at 7675 and 7625.
Short 7645 and 7650. The first downside test. Cross 7645 and the tape either settles on 7640 (Weak / Unstable) or extends to test 7635.
A modest long 7640 line wedged between the short 7645 and the short 7635. Balance only while 7635 holds.
Short 7635, the biggest short line below spot. The second downside test, a few points above the bottom of the straddle range (7,628). Cross it and the balance moves down to 7625 (Strong).
Market makers long 7630 and 7625, the heaviest long cluster on the chart after 7600. Where the range resolves if 7635 goes.
Strip today's numbers away and this is the shape you're looking for. Dealers short at the edges, dealers long in the middle. Their hedging pushes price away from where they're short and, as the day decays, charm pulls it toward where they're long. So the shorts are the tests and the longs are the balance, and the structure follows from that.
The wings go at the tests. You're long the option at a strike the market is likely to run through on the way to being rejected, so if it does run, you're covered and the trade is capped instead of blown out.
The body goes at balance. You're short the options at the strike the tape settles on, and that's the strike you want to pin. Short the pin, never long the pin.
Buy one at the upper test, sell two at balance, buy one at the lower test. Usually about 15 points a side, a bit wider when the straddle is rich. Pay $2.50 to $4.00, look for two to four times that, and if the range goes, cut it and wait for the next range.
Same rules every session, in the order they get applied. Positions give you the range and the target, gamma tells you how the tape is going to behave, charm tells you which way it leans, and the structure is how you turn a weighted coin into a trade. The quotes are from the VS3D trading sessions.
The strikes market makers are short frame the range. Inside it, the strike they are longest is where the tape resolves. Hedging pushes price away from the max short and toward the max long, the opposite of the usual assumption about what market makers do.
"What is the range? Well, it's the dealer's max short. And then, what's the target inside the range? It's the max long."
Read the day's expiry as it stood at yesterday's close, after reconciliation. That position is unlikely to get closed, so its hedging path is real. Same-day prints mostly get unwound; they are noise, not structure.
"A lot of what you see in the massively overinflated volumes is noise. I'm looking for structure, something I can actually identify and trade off of."
You want several strikes short with a clear peak on one side and several long with a clear peak on the other, so the pressure is consistent across the range. Alternating long, short, long, short is a fishbone: nothing to trade.
"When you get that, you get a powerful force that's consistent through them."
The balance point is the long cluster the range resolves to once the other flows quiet down, and it is always the short strike of the structure. You do not buy it. You sell the tests and let the tape bring you to it.
"You want your short options to be what you pin. You don't want to ever land on a long option."
At a short cluster the tape either extends beyond it or gets rejected. Give it about half an hour of chewing at the level. Rejection is the signal; reversion toward balance is the trade. Repeated returns to a level you have broken are thin ice, not confirmation.
"It's like a fork. There's a probability of going up or down, but not flat."
The first 90 minutes routinely move a full day's straddle in minutes. Decay flows do not play out against that. Until volume and aggression drop, every balance level behaves like a test: let it extend, wait for the rejection.
"In the morning, you almost treat all the levels as test levels. You should not even be thinking about balance."
A crack of the boundary flips the passive flow you were leaning on against you, so the hypothesis is gone. Three crossings of the level, or 15 to 20 minutes spent beyond it, and you are out. There is another range with its own balance point, or there is no trade.
"It might come back, but it's not grounded in my approach anymore, so ignore it, it's done."
Long gamma is glue: liquidity, stickiness, a good place to sell options and fade the edges. Negative gamma means no stabilizer: widen the tolerance, take profit earlier, expect less precision. Gamma is never bullish or bearish.
"When you have negative gamma, I literally just downshift what I think is possible."
Charm is the passive drift from decaying hedges: away from the dealer shorts, toward the dealer longs. It is weakest at the open and strongest into the close. The day splits in three: the open to London close (ignore charm), London close to 2 PM (the entries, usually 11 to 11:30), 2 PM to the close (hold or fold).
"I almost never trade the open. My lens gives me no edge. It's just chaos."
If the cohort you can see is buying and price goes sideways, someone you cannot see is selling. When the known buyer turns seller later in the day, the balance breaks in a knowable direction. That is the bias the whole framework exploits.
"I know that my buyer that I'm witnessing will become a seller later. And that is enough to produce a bias in your outcomes."
Buy the wings, sell the middle at the balance strike, about 15 points either side, wider when the straddle is rich. Pay $2.50 to $4.00, look for 2x to 4x. The short middle decays fastest, so a wrong read can usually still be cut with half the premium.
"I'll exit for a profit and call it a loss, because my hypothesis didn't hit."
Under 5% of the account in any one trade. Play as much as possible forever, never double down when the range is lost because it is cheaper. Best days: slow, low flow, long gamma, a big clustered position with clean shape. Worst: chaotic mornings, negative gamma, messy multi-expiry cycles. Knowing when to sit out is the best asset.
"I don't care about being right. I care about walking away with money in my account."
The SPX-equivalent overnight range in the futures, 6:30 PM last night to 6:40 AM this morning: low 7,651.70 at 1:21 AM, high 7,681.20 at 4:04 AM, 7,661.70 at capture. About 30 points, which is a straddle's worth, and all of it inside the second tests. Hover the marks to see which level each one sat on.
The high sat a few points above the 7675 balance and just under the short cluster that starts at 7685. It did not get into the 7695 test, and it came back down through 7675 and 7665 over the next two hours.
The low sat between the 7645 first test and the 7660 balance, and it was rejected sharply: the tape was back at 7665 within half an hour. Overnight the range stayed inside both first tests.
Where the futures sat when the captures were taken: right on the 7660 opening balance, having drifted down from the 4 AM high through the 7675 cluster and the 7665 test.
Roughly the 7675 line. The overnight tape spent about an hour above it around 4 to 5 AM and then came back through it, which is the pattern the framework expects at a strong balance early in the day: it gets traded through and rejected until the fast money clears.
Roughly the 7665 line. Crossed on the way up around 3:30 AM, crossed back on the way down around 5:45 AM. Overnight both crossings were quick: the extension-and-rejection behaviour of a test.
Roughly the 7660 line, where the futures sat at capture. The whole overnight session pivoted around it, which is what a balance is supposed to look like, even a weak one.
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The Gradient Chart on Gamma. Green is long gamma, and today it's green across the whole range until about 2 PM. The red shows up late, and it shows up right on the short clusters: 7690 to 7710 and 7650 to 7675. The tooltip is the 9:00 AM column at 7,660.71.
One greek of the whole market maker position simulated at every index level for every 10 minutes of the session. This capture is Gamma: the futures they have to trade per point of index movement. Full walkthrough: volsignals.com/gamma.
SPX 7,660.17 at capture, down 6.51 from the 7,666.68 close. The straddle was $32.10.
From 7,575 up to 7,750 the field is green from the open until early afternoon. So market makers are long gamma and they are selling rallies and buying dips at every level in the range, and that's the backdrop for a range day: moves get absorbed instead of extended once the fast money is out of the way.
The short cluster from 7685 to 7710 turns the field red in the last 90 minutes. Above 7690 late in the day the hedge flips from absorbing to chasing: through the 7695 test late, market makers buy the break.
The short 7665 line, with the short 7645 and 7650 under it, goes negative late. That is the zone between the opening balance and the strong 7675 balance, so a late move through it gets chased rather than faded. It is also why the afternoon lean matters more than usual today.
A small negative pocket at the top of the chart in the last half hour. Out of range for today unless the upside opens up completely.
Sep 3, 2026, 9:00 AM column, read at the hovered level.
The simulated level, 7,660.71. Hover elsewhere on the field and every number below reprices.
Gamma at the node: 71.90. Positive = market makers are long gamma here.
$4.22bn of futures to trade for a 1% move in the index. The size of the lean.
-$55.1mm: the notional value of futures to trade on a $1 up move in the index. Negative = they sell into strength.
-143.81 ES: the futures to trade on a $1 up move. The number to carry to the tape: every dollar of rally from here gets met with about 144 ES of selling, and every dollar of dip with the same amount of buying.
The Gradient Chart on Charm. The flip sits at about 7,680 and spot opened about 20 points under it, in the blue. So with the index standing still, market makers sell futures as time passes, and the lean today is down, toward the long 7625 and 7630 cluster. It's light at 9:00 (-5.51 ES over the next five minutes, noise) and it builds into the afternoon pockets.
Same field, different greek. Charm is how the delta of the position changes as time passes, so which way the passive hedge leans with no move in the index at all. Full walkthrough: volsignals.com/charm.
The dotted contour where charm crosses zero. It sits at about 7680 this morning and drifts up toward 7685 by early afternoon, so it runs right along the top of the 7675 balance cluster. Spot opened about 20 points under it.
Everywhere above the flip the field is gold, so that is negative charm: the position loses delta as time passes and market makers buy futures to stay hedged. That only helps a rally once it has cleared 7675 and 7680, so today the supportive side of the charm profile is above the first upside test, not at spot.
Spot is in the blue. Positive charm: the position gets longer as time passes and market makers sell futures. The morning meeting called it a bearish lean, and light: at 9:00 the tooltip reads -5.51 ES over the next five minutes at spot, which is noise. The lean gets stronger with the decay and shows up in the pockets after 2 PM.
The long 7670 to 7680 lines just above spot: late in the day an out-of-the-money long line loses its delta fast, so the position gets shorter and market makers buy. A late-afternoon tape sitting between the opening balance and 7675 gets a buying lean from this pocket.
Above 7700 late, the same long lines are in the money and gaining delta, so the sign turns and market makers sell. A late push through the 7695 test meets charm selling, which is why the 7700 balance is called unstable.
Below 7600 late in the day the big long 7600 line and the ones above it are in the money and gaining delta the other way, so market makers buy. Out of range for today unless 7635 and 7625 both go, but it is where a downside extension would get pulled back from.
Sep 3, 2026, 9:00 AM column at 7,659.90.
Charm at the node: +2.76. Positive = the position gets longer with time = market makers sell.
-$2.1mm of futures to sell over the next five minutes at this level, purely from time passing.
-5.51 ES contracts to sell. Noise at 9:00, and the morning meeting said so. It runs every five minutes all day in one direction, and it gets bigger as the expiry decays, which is why the afternoon pockets matter more than this number.
We're long gamma across the whole range this morning and the opening balance is weak: 7660, right where spot sits, with almost nothing on the line. The strong balances are 15 points either side, 7675 above and 7625 below, and the first tests are close: 7665 five points up, 7645 fifteen points down. Charm leans down today with the flip at about 7680, so the passive flow at spot is a small sell all day, and the supportive gold only starts once the tape has cleared 7675 and 7680. The $32.10 straddle puts the second tests, 7695 and 7635, right on the edges of the priced range. And the morning meeting's caveat stands: profiles like this tend to resolve one way, but with the jobs number tomorrow morning the decisive move may wait.
Nothing in the first 90 minutes: overnight the tape already traded through 7675 and 7665 and back, and the morning will do it again. After London close, once a test gets rejected, a fly with the short strike on whichever balance is in force makes sense: reject 7665 and the middle is 7660 with the wings around 7645 and 7675; cross 7665 and reject 7695 and the middle is 7675, which is the strong one and the one charm helps from above; reject 7645 and the middle is 7660 again; cross 7645 and 7635 and the middle is 7625, with the charm drift helping from above. If we get above 7695 and hold there late, the gamma pocket and the charm pocket both turn against a fade, so you stand aside until 7700 either holds or goes. This is how we think about it, not a recommendation to put it on.
The free 7-day trial opens the same dashboard this page came out of, so Positions by Strike and Expiry, the Gradient Chart on every greek and the flows behind them. Come to the 11:00 AM ET today session and we'll go through today's range together and take your questions.
Start the free 7-day trial Join today's session on Zoom Read the Annotated Guide (free)Data via Cboe, VS3D/VolSignals · Modeling via VS3D/VolSignals · Dashboard captures Sep 3, 2026 6:40 AM ET; tooltips read on the 9:00 AM column; levels from the VolSignals morning meeting. VolSignals is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer.