|VS3D™ · Positions|VS3D™ · PositionsEvery SPX option has a market maker on one side of it, and their hedging of that position is where the mechanical flows in the index come from. This page goes through the Positions by Strike view on today's expiring position: what each bar, dot and dashed line means, what the shape implies for the hedge response, and why an open-interest "GEX" number cannot get you there. Then the same position priced on the Gradient Chart as gamma and charm.
VS3D Live Education: Positions, live in the dashboard, 2:00 PM ET today. About 15 to 30 minutes, no registration. We'll go through today's position the way it's laid out below and then take questions. The join link is posted in Discord #announcements and on X the morning of each session.
Start the free 7-day trialThe trial opens the same dashboard, so you can hover the same bars while we're on them. Reading before or after: The Annotated Guide, how we trade it, the gamma page, the charm page and the community onboarding guide.
The VS3D Positions by Strike view at 8:05 AM ET on the Oct 5, 2026 expiry, exactly as it appeared in the dashboard. Blue bars to the right are strikes where market makers are net long, gold bars to the left are strikes where they are net short, calls and puts combined. The dashed lines are spot and the straddle boundaries. Hover or tap anything.
The view shows one expiry, strike by strike: what market makers hold. The index in the header (7,723.64, +0.92 (+0.01%)) is the mark at capture, 8:05 AM ET, before the open. SPX was within a point of Friday's close.
The expiry selector. This is the 0DTE, the series that expires at 4:00 PM today. The at-the-money straddle was $31.40 at capture, which is the market's estimate of today's range. The two purple dashed lines are spot plus and minus that number.
Blue means market makers are net long, calls and puts combined: about 3,100 contracts at 7700 before the open. A long line is where the hedge response absorbs movement. Market makers sell into a rally toward it and buy into a decline toward it. It sat about 24 points under spot and 8 points above the lower straddle boundary.
The second biggest long on the screen, and the index was marked at 7,723.64, a point and a half under it. A long line at the money means the first move away from it in either direction is met by hedging in the opposite direction.
The biggest long above spot, 15 points over the upper straddle boundary. It sits directly above the 7765 short, so the top of the screen reads short, then long, within 5 points.
Gold means market makers are net short. A short line is where the hedge response amplifies movement: market makers buy as the index rises toward it and sell as it falls away. This is the biggest short above spot before the open, 10 points over the upper boundary.
About -350, -810 and -430. Three adjacent short lines between spot and the upper boundary. Adjacent lines with the same sign act together, so the stretch from 7735 to 7745 is where an early rally would be amplified before it reaches the longs at 7750 to 7760.
A small short directly over the 7700 long. On the way down the index would cross this line first and the big long 5 points later.
About +1,070, +800 and +560. Three adjacent longs, 12 to 22 points under the lower straddle boundary.
The biggest short line before the open, directly under the three longs at 7670 to 7680. Below 7670 the sign of the nearest big line changes from long to short within 5 points.
Spot plus the at-the-money straddle. The market was pricing about a $31.40 move either way. By 11:10 AM ET SPX had traded up to 7,758.32, about 3 points through this line.
The white dashed line is the index at capture. Read the position relative to it: what is long above, what is short above, and the same underneath.
Spot minus the straddle. The 7700 long sits 8 points above it, and the 7665 short and the 7670 to 7680 longs sit underneath it.
The "Show Comparison" set: where each bar stood at your chosen reference time (the prior close by default). A bar past its dot grew since the reference, and a bar short of its dot shrank. The 7770 bar ends well short of its dot, so that long was smaller before the open than at the reference.
The x-axis is net contracts, -3,149 to +3,149 on this screen. Every bar is a count of SPX options. The dollars come later, on the Gradient Chart, once the position is priced at a level and a time of day.
Zoom in or out on the strike axis, fit to the visible range, or go full screen. The vertical slider on the right edge does the same by drag.
Hover the figure or the list to reveal an element · click to pin · Esc to unpin
The capture above is from before the open. This is the same expiry at the Oct 5, 2026 11:10 AM ET snapshot, after the first hour and forty minutes of trading, drawn the way the dashboard draws it. A 0DTE position changes through the day as the series trades, and several of the biggest lines on this chart were small or had the opposite sign at 8:05 AM ET. Hover a bar for the call and put split behind the net number, and the customer side of the same strike.
Long lines are where the hedge response absorbs movement, and short lines are where it amplifies. Market makers sell into a rally toward a strike they are long, and they buy as the index rises toward a strike they are short. Read what is long and short on each side of spot before you look at any greek.
7680 +3,121 · 7685 +5,185 · 7725 +6,145 · 7770 +5,941 · 7780 +3,089
7725 and 7770 were about +1,900 and +1,450 before the open. 7685 was a small short.
7665 -2,720 · 7675 -6,109 · 7695 -4,650 · 7795 -5,804 · 7850 -2,563
7675 and 7695 were small longs before the open. 7795 and 7850 are above the window of the morning capture.
SPX was at 7,754.16, a point under the upper straddle boundary from the morning. Long 7750, 7755 and 7760 around it, short 7765 above, then long 7770, 7775 and 7780. Below, short 7745, long 7740, short 7730, and the 7725 long.
SPX opened at 7,730.86, a few points above the 7725 long, and the low of the morning was 7,727.59 in the first minute. The high through 11:10 AM ET was 7,758.32 at 10:26 AM ET, about 3 points through the upper boundary.
Most "gamma exposure" charts start from open interest and a sign convention: assume customers sold the calls and bought the puts, so dealers are long every call and short every put, multiply by gamma, sum. Open interest is a count of contracts that exist. It carries no information about who is long them, and anyone who has ever bought a call has already broken the assumption. The position on this page is built from the trade prints themselves, with the participant on each side, so the sign on every line is observed, not assumed. In today's expiry, 19 of the 42 lines over 300 contracts disagree with the convention. Here is what that looks like on a few of them.
| Line | Open-interest heuristic | Participant data, 11:10 AM ET | Customer net | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7685 P | MM short | MM long +5,219 | -5,180 | customers are net short these puts, so market makers are long them. The formula has market makers short every put and misses a long line |
| 7725 P | MM short | MM long +3,293 | -1,860 | customers are net short these puts, so market makers are long them. The formula has market makers short every put and misses a long line |
| 7765 C | MM long | MM short -1,186 | +1,422 | customers are net long these calls, so market makers are short them. The formula has market makers long every call, and the hedge response here amplifies where the formula says it absorbs |
| 7795 C | MM long | MM short -5,729 | +6,407 | customers are net long these calls, so market makers are short them. The formula has market makers long every call, and the hedge response here amplifies where the formula says it absorbs |
| 7675 P | MM short | MM short -6,228 | +6,086 | the sign matches the convention on this line |
| 7770 C | MM long | MM long +6,251 | -4,466 | the sign matches the convention on this line |
Get the sign wrong on one big line and the hedge flow you expect at that strike runs the other way. The 7795 calls are a line the formula has market makers long, and they are short it, so their hedging amplifies there. The 7685 puts are a line the formula has them short, and it is one of the biggest longs in the expiry. 19 of the 42 sized lines in today's expiry carry the wrong sign under the convention, calls and puts both.
The VS3D position is a cumulative record: every SPX option print over the last two years of proprietary data, sized and signed by participant, netted by strike and expiry every session. The snapshot above already carries this morning's trading. Open interest updates once a day and forgets who did the trading.
An aggregate GEX figure is one number for the whole market at one price. Hedging happens at a level and a clock. The Gradient Chart below prices the same position at every index level and every time of day, and the published headline gamma is the full position, every expiry, not the 0DTE alone. $6.82bn per 1% at 7,720.52 at 9:00 AM is a full-position number.
Gamma, charm and vanna are not three data sets. They are the same position, differentiated three ways. That is why the late-day red gamma pockets sit around the 0DTE short lines, and why the afternoon gold area on the charm chart sits around the 7700 long. Once the position is right, the profiles agree with each other.
The Gradient Chart on Gamma at about 8:10 AM ET. Green is long gamma, and it's green across the whole window until about 3:25 PM. The red late in the day is around the 0DTE short lines, and the largest area is near the 7665 short. This is the pre-open simulation, so it does not include today's trading.
The same position, now priced. The Gradient Chart takes the whole market maker position (every expiry, not only today's) and simulates the greek at every index level (vertical axis) and every time of day (horizontal axis). Gamma comes first because it says how the hedge response behaves: whether it absorbs movement or amplifies it.
The at-the-money straddle for today's expiry at capture, the same number as on Positions by Strike.
From 7,634.50 to 7,810.50, and from the open until about 3:25 PM, the field is green. Market makers are long gamma at every level in the window, so they sell into rallies and buy into declines. The long lines on Positions by Strike (7700, 7725, 7770 and the longs in the later expiries) outweigh the shorts.
The largest red area on the chart. It opens around 3:25 PM near 7,655 and covers roughly 7,640 to 7,670 by the close, around the 7665 short. Late in the day the rest of the position has less gamma at that level than the expiring short line, so the hedge response there amplifies.
Near 7,740, 7,765, 7,780 and 7,800, in the last ten to fifteen minutes. Each one is around a 0DTE short line on Positions by Strike.
A threshold contour, not a sign change. It marks the edge of the strongest long-gamma band, and it runs a few points above 7,700 for most of the session before it bends down toward 7,700 into the close. The short pink lines at the right edge outline the late-day changes around the expiring lines.
The horizontal axis is the session clock. Read left to right for how the field changes as time passes with the index unchanged. The RTH toggle at the top right restricts the view to regular hours.
The vertical axis is the index. Hover any point in the field and the tooltip prices the position at that level and that time (see the tooltip below).
Oct 5, 2026, the 9:00 AM column of the Gradient Chart, hovered at 7,720.52.
The simulated index level, 7,720.52, about where spot was marked before the open.
Gamma at the node: 114.47. Positive means market makers are long gamma here.
$6.82bn of futures to trade for a 1% move in the index. This is the full-position number, every expiry, priced at 7,720.52 at 9:00 AM. A single-expiry open-interest GEX figure is not comparable to it.
-$88.4mm of futures on a $1 up move in the index. Negative means market makers sell.
-228.94 ES: the same trade in futures contracts. On a $1 up move at this level, market makers sell about 229 ES. Friday morning's column read about 68.
The Gradient Chart on Charm at the same time. The contour where charm crosses zero starts the day at about 7,740, in the 7735 to 7745 shorts, and spot was marked under it. Blue under the contour means market makers sell futures as time passes, and gold above it means they buy. From late morning a second gold area opens around the 7700 long.
The same field with a different greek. Charm is how the delta of the position changes as time passes, so it says which way market makers hedge with no move in the index at all. The charm page has the full guide: volsignals.com/charm.
Gold is negative charm: the position loses delta as time passes, so market makers buy futures to stay hedged. At the open the gold starts at about 7,740. The edge rises to about 7,755 by early afternoon and comes back to about 7,740 into the close.
Above it the hedge from time passing is buying, and below it selling. It runs from about 7,737 at 8:30 AM to about 7,757 at 1:30 PM. Treat it as a zone a few points wide.
Below the contour the sign is positive charm, so market makers sell futures as time passes. At the 9:00 AM column with the index at 7,720.96 the tooltip read -7.76 ES over the next five minutes (-$3.0mm). That is a small number next to the gamma hedge.
It opens near 7,690 late in the morning and covers roughly 7,660 to 7,705 through the afternoon. It sits around the 7700 long: under a long line the position loses delta as it decays, so market makers buy there.
Below the gold area the sign turns back to selling. That is under the 7665 short on Positions by Strike.
In the last hour the right edge breaks into gold and blue pockets, one per expiring line. The same position produces stronger charm as expiration approaches, and at 4:00 PM those lines are gone.
The same clock as the gamma view. Charm from the expiring series is smallest at the open and largest into the close.
Oct 5, 2026, 9:00 AM column at 7,720.96.
Charm at the node: 3.88. Positive means the position gains delta with time, so market makers sell.
-$3.0mm of futures to sell over the next five minutes at this level, with the index unchanged.
-7.76 ES: the same trade in futures contracts, to sell.
ES December as the SPX equivalent, from Sunday evening to about 8:04 this morning. A 31-point range, high 7,738.30 and low 7,707.55, inside the straddle boundaries, with the low about 8 points above the 7700 long and the high in the 7735 to 7745 shorts.
The December future minus the futures basis, so the levels on this chart line up with SPX strikes. The futures chart is here for market context only: the position above is SPX options, and the VS3D data does not include ES.
Sunday at 9:39 PM ET. The high is between the 7735 and 7740 short lines on Positions by Strike.
Monday at 6:01 AM ET. The low is between the 7705 short and the 7710 line, about 8 points above the 7700 long.
At about 8:04 AM ET, a minute before the Positions by Strike capture. Within 3 points of the 7725 long.
From 7,707.55 to 7,738.30. That is about the size of the $31.40 straddle, and the whole range sat inside the straddle boundaries, between the 7700 long and the 7735 to 7745 shorts.
Before the open, market makers were long gamma across the whole window, about $6.82bn per 1% at spot, so movement is absorbed for most of the session. Spot was marked on the 7725 long with the 7700 long underneath, three shorts from 7735 to 7745 between spot and the upper boundary, and the 7765 short and 7770 long just over it. Charm at spot was a small sell, with buying above about 7,740. By 11:10 AM ET SPX had traded up to the upper boundary and the expiry had changed: 7725 and 7770 were the two biggest longs, and the biggest shorts were 7675, 7695 and 7795.
The position tells you which lines absorb movement and which amplify it. It does not give you a direction. The levels for the day, and how they become a range, a balance and a set of tests, come from the morning meeting and today's session. That method is written up on the trading page, and the live position is in the dashboard the trial opens.
The free 7-day trial opens the same dashboard this page came out of: Positions by Strike and by Expiry, the Gradient Chart on every greek, and the flows behind them. Come to the 2:00 PM ET today session and we'll go through today's position together and take your questions.
Start the free 7-day trial Read the Annotated Guide (free)Data via Cboe, VS3D/VolSignals · Modeling via VS3D/VolSignals · Dashboard captures Oct 5, 2026 8:05 AM ET to 8:10 AM ET; database snapshot Oct 5, 2026 11:10 AM ET, SPX 7,754.16 at the snapshot. VolSignals is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer.