Complete Guide to Trading Gamma Exposure (GEX)

What Is Gamma Exposure — and Why Does It Move Price?

Options dealers (market makers) are in the business of providing liquidity, not taking directional bets. When they sell a call, they acquire a short delta position in that option. To stay delta-neutral — to remove directional risk from their book — they buy the underlying. When the underlying rises and the call's delta increases, they must buy more. When the underlying falls and delta decreases, they sell some back. This continuous buy-as-price-rises, sell-as-price-falls cycle is called delta hedging, and its intensity at any given price level is proportional to gamma.

Gamma Exposure aggregates that hedging intensity across every strike and expiration in the options chain to produce a single number: the net dollar-delta that dealers must trade per 1% move in the underlying. When the number is large and positive at a given strike, dealers have a strong mechanical reason to stabilize price there. When it is large and negative, the same mechanics push them to trade with the move — amplifying it rather than absorbing it.

This is the core insight behind GEX trading: dealer hedging is not random, it is predictable from the open interest profile. You don't need to know what a hedge fund is doing or what the Fed is about to say. You need to know where dealers are hedging and in which direction — and that is exactly what the GEX chart tells you.

For a primer on the foundational mechanics, see What Is Gamma Exposure (GEX), Explained.

The Mechanics: Positive vs Negative Gamma Regimes

Positive Gamma: The Pinning Regime

When net GEX is positive, dealers are collectively long gamma — they own more gamma from the puts and calls they have sold and then hedged, than they are exposed to as short gamma from options they have bought. Long-gamma dealers buy dips and sell rallies to maintain delta neutrality. The effect on price is stabilizing: every move away from the highest-OI strike encounters natural dealer resistance. Price tends to pin, mean-revert, and respect walls.

Practical signs of a positive-gamma environment:

• Intraday range compresses relative to the implied move. Realized vol runs below IV.
• Price bounces cleanly off round numbers and known OI concentrations.
• The call wall and put wall act as reliable resistance and support.
• Premium-selling strategies (iron condors, butterflies) perform well because the range holds.

Negative Gamma: The Momentum Regime

When net GEX is negative, dealers are short gamma. They need to sell as price falls and buy as price rises to stay delta-neutral — the exact opposite of the stabilizing dynamic above. Their mechanical hedging amplifies price moves. A 0.5% drop triggers dealer selling, which pushes price down further, which triggers more selling. This feedback loop is the mechanical engine behind many of the most dramatic intraday moves in liquid names.

Practical signs of a negative-gamma environment:

• Intraday realized vol exceeds recent averages. Gaps extend rather than reverse.
• Breakouts from walls or levels hold and follow through.
• Momentum strategies outperform mean-reversion strategies.
• Option buyers (long calls or puts) benefit; premium sellers face unexpected moves.

The Gamma Flip: The Regime Dividing Line

The gamma flip is the price level where net GEX crosses zero — where the aggregate dealer book transitions from net long gamma to net short gamma (or vice versa). Above the flip, the market is in positive gamma. Below it, negative gamma. This single level is arguably the most important intraday reference point for a GEX trader.

The flip is not static. It shifts as intraday flow adds and removes open interest — which is exactly why live flow-GEX matters. A settled GEX flip computed from morning OI can drift meaningfully by early afternoon on an active name as new positions accumulate.

For a deep dive into call walls, put walls, and the flip specifically, see Call Wall, Put Wall & Gamma Flip Explained.

The Math: Net GEX Per Strike and the Dealer-Short Convention

The standard formula for net GEX at a single strike K is:

The minus sign on the put contribution encodes the standard GEX dealer-positioning convention: dealers are modeled as long calls and short puts — the consensus assumption that customers buy puts as downside hedges and write calls for income, leaving dealers on the opposite side. Gamma is always positive for any long option and negative for any short option, whether call or put. So a long call carries positive (long) gamma and a short put carries negative (short) gamma; the formula therefore adds call gamma and subtracts put gamma. When the long gamma dealers hold from calls outweighs the short gamma from puts, net GEX is positive and dealer hedging is stabilizing.

To convert to dollar-denominated exposure — how many dollars of shares the dealer must trade per 1% move — multiply by the underlying price and contract multiplier:

where S is the spot price and 100 is the standard contract multiplier.

Concrete example — two SPY strikes: Suppose SPY is at S = $595. At the $595 call, gamma is 0.018 and call OI is 22,000 contracts; put gamma is 0.016 and put OI is 14,000 contracts. At the $590 put, call gamma is 0.009 with 8,000 call OI, put gamma is 0.021 with 31,000 put OI.

• $595 strike net GEX_K: (0.018 × 22,000 − 0.016 × 14,000) × 595² × 0.01 × 100
  = (396 − 224) × 354,025 × 0.01 × 100
  = 172 × 354,025 × 1 = +$60.9 million (positive → dealers stabilize here)
• $590 strike net GEX_K: (0.009 × 8,000 − 0.021 × 31,000) × 590² × 0.01 × 100
  = (72 − 651) × 348,100 × 0.01 × 100
  = −579 × 348,100 × 1 = −$201.6 million (negative → dealers amplify moves here)

Summing just these two strikes: +$60.9M − $201.6M = −$140.7 million net GEX. If this pattern extends across the full chain, the net book is negative-gamma — dealers will sell into drops through $590. In practice the API returns this aggregated dollar figure as net_gex in the /v1/exposure/gex response.

Sum across all strikes to get net dealer dollar GEX:

A positive NetGEX means dealers are net long gamma across the whole chain. A negative NetGEX means they are net short gamma — and moves will be amplified.

Why the Dealer-Short Convention Is an Approximation

The standard model assumes 100% dealer-short positioning. In reality, some options are dealer-to-dealer, some large institutions buy puts as portfolio hedges (making the dealer long the put, hence short gamma on that position), and retail flow is not monolithic. This is a known limitation — it means GEX is best treated as a directional signal and level-locator rather than a precise forecast of the exact shares dealers will trade. The effective OI methodology partially addresses this by confidence-weighting buy vs sell flow classification intraday.

Reading the Data: Settled GEX, Flow-GEX, and the Dealer Risk Classifier

Settled GEX: The Book of Record

Settled GEX is computed from the morning open-interest broadcast — the OI that reflects all positions held as of the prior day's close. It is accurate at the open, stable, and the correct baseline for understanding the structural gamma landscape. It is also the only surface on most free GEX tools.

The problem: OI is broadcast once per day, before the open. By 11:30 AM, significant intraday flow has shifted the real dealer book — new positions have opened, others have been closed, and the call wall may have moved $2-3. A settled-GEX flip at $592 means little if flow-GEX puts the real flip at $588.

Flow-GEX: Effective OI Intraday

Flow-GEX recomputes the GEX surface against effective OI: settled OI plus an intraday simulator's estimate of positions opened or closed since the open. The simulator applies a confidence weight to side-classified buy/sell volume to estimate the net OI change per contract. The result is a GEX surface that updates as flow moves the dealer book — typically refreshing every few minutes during market hours.

This distinction matters most in three scenarios:

1. High-volume days. When SPY volume is 2x normal, intraday OI changes are large. Flow-GEX may show a flip $4-5 away from the settled estimate.
2. After 11:30 AM ET. As a rough rule, settled GEX is sufficient for the first 90 minutes; after that, flow-GEX should be your primary read.
3. Around events. On FOMC, CPI, or earnings days, the pre-event OI accumulation and post-event covering can shift the flip by $5-10 in minutes. Only flow-GEX tracks this.

See also: Live GEX vs Settled GEX, Intraday Flow Explained and Flow vs Exposure Endpoints: Which GEX API to Use.

The Net Dealer Risk Classifier

Beyond the GEX surface itself, the /v1/flow/dealer-risk/{t} endpoint provides a single-label classifier that synthesizes gamma, delta, vanna, and charm exposures into a directional regime: amplifying, dampening, or flip. This is useful for a quick pre-trade check: before entering any position, know whether the net dealer book is working for you or against you.

Reading the GEX-By-Strike Chart

The GEX-by-strike chart shows net GEX (positive = bullish dealer pressure / stabilizing; negative = bearish dealer pressure / amplifying) at each strike. Key things to read on the chart:

• Tallest positive bar above spot: Call wall. Dealers are most heavily long gamma here and will sell to defend this level.
• Tallest positive bar below spot: Put wall. Dealers are most heavily long gamma here and will buy to support this level.
• Zero crossing: Gamma flip. The price at which the net switches from positive to negative.
• Symmetric positive profile: Classic pinning setup — price will tend to stay between the walls.
• Large negative bars on one side: Indicates dealer short gamma in that zone — moves toward that zone tend to accelerate.

For a full visual walkthrough, see How to Read a GEX-By-Strike Chart.

The GEX Trading Playbook

Positive Gamma Regime: Mean Reversion and the Pin

When spot is above the gamma flip and net GEX is positive:

Signal	Trade Idea	Logic
Price rallies into call wall	Fade / short, target the flip or midpoint	Dealers sell into the call wall; resistance is mechanical
Price dips toward put wall	Fade / buy, target midpoint or call wall	Dealers buy at the put wall; support is mechanical
Price near magnet strike, pin score elevated	Sell premium — butterfly or iron condor centered on magnet	Pin mechanics pull price to the OI concentration as expiration nears
Price consolidates in mid-range for 30+ min	Short straddle or iron condor within the walls	Dealer hedging dampens realized vol; range-bound bias favors premium selling

Sizing and stop logic: In positive gamma, your stop is a clean break through the wall — not just a touch, but a close above the call wall or below the put wall. Size so that a full wall break stops you out at 1-2% of account. The mean-reversion edge disappears if walls shift intraday; re-check flow-GEX before re-entering.

Negative Gamma Regime: Trend Following and Breakouts

When spot is below the gamma flip and net GEX is negative:

Signal	Trade Idea	Logic
Price breaks below put wall	Follow the breakdown with puts or short	Dealers sell with the move; mechanical amplification supports the trend
Price breaks above call wall in negative gamma	Follow the breakout with calls or long	Dealers buy with the move above the call wall
Spot approaches gamma flip from below	Wait for clean reclaim before reversing to positive-gamma playbook	A failed flip reclaim is a short-covering opportunity, not a regime change
Gamma acceleration 4x+ with 2hr to close	Momentum debit spread in direction of trend	Late-session negative gamma cascades are fast; defined risk structures limit damage from whipsaws

Sizing and stop logic: In negative gamma, stops are a re-cross back above/below the flip (regime change). Keep position sizes smaller than in positive gamma — cascades can be fast and violent. Use debit spreads rather than naked options; the added protection from the long leg is worth the capped upside when volatility spikes.

Using the Flip as a Pivot

The gamma flip functions as the most important price level on a GEX chart — not a traditional support/resistance derived from price history, but a structural level derived from dealer positioning. Practical rules:

1. Above flip = fade regime. Treat the flip as a floor: sell puts below it with caution, because breaking below flips the dealer dynamic. Conversely, the flip offers natural put-wall-type support when approached from above.
2. Below flip = trend regime. Do not fade moves below the flip expecting dealers to stabilize price. They won't — they'll make it worse.
3. Test of the flip from below = the key trade. When price rallies back toward the flip from negative-gamma territory, it often stalls and reverses. The flip acts as resistance when approached from below. If it breaks cleanly, that is a genuine regime change.
4. Re-check the flip every 30 minutes intraday. Use flow-GEX; the settled flip is a starting point, not a live level.

Risk and Position Sizing

GEX signals are probabilistic, not deterministic. The dealer-short convention is an approximation. Walls shift. The flip drifts. A regime can change in 20 minutes on a macro event. Sound sizing is what separates traders who use GEX profitably from those who blow up chasing the "mechanical" edge.

Regime-Based Sizing Framework

Practical guidelines:

Regime	Risk per Trade (% of account)	Notes
Positive gamma, established walls, pin score >60	1–2%	Highest conviction; dealer hedging provides structural support for the thesis
Positive gamma, walls uncertain / shifting	0.5–1%	Reduce size when flow-GEX shows walls drifting; re-enter at full size once stable
Negative gamma, confirmed trend with momentum	0.75–1.5%	Defined-risk structures only; cascades are fast and stops get skipped in gaps
Regime ambiguous / near flip	0.25–0.5%	Reduce sharply around the flip — regime transitions are the most dangerous area on the chart
Pre-event (CPI, FOMC, earnings)	0%–0.25%	Event vol overrides GEX mechanics; stand down or use minimal stubs to stay engaged

The Kelly Criterion for GEX-Signal Trades

If you can estimate your win rate and average win/loss from historical GEX-based trades, the Kelly criterion endpoint (/v1/pricing/kelly) provides a mathematical position-sizing floor. Use fractional Kelly (50-25% of the full Kelly output) to account for parameter estimation error — GEX signal quality varies significantly by ticker, session time, and market regime.

The Kinks and Common Mistakes

This is the section most GEX guides skip. The mechanics above work — but they break down in specific, predictable ways. Here are the most common kinks, in order of how often they surprise traders.

1. Stale Settled OI by Midday

The single most frequent mistake: trading off the settled GEX chart at 2:00 PM and wondering why the walls aren't holding. Settled OI is broadcast once before the open. By midday on a normal SPY day, 15-25% of 0DTE and near-term OI has turned over. The call wall that showed $590 at 9:30 AM may be $587 or $593 by 1:00 PM. Rule of thumb: after 11:00 AM ET, use flow-GEX or verify the settled chart against current price action before trading off a wall level.

2. OI Misattribution

Not all reported OI is correctly attributed to strike/expiry pairs by data sources. Databento and similar feed providers have documented mis-keying of open interest onto wrong (strike, expiry) combinations, particularly for same-day options where OI updates happen rapidly. The symptom is a GEX spike at a strike with thin visible flow, or a call wall that doesn't correspond to any visible concentration in the options chain. If a wall looks anomalous, cross-reference against the raw options chain or use a second data source before trading it as a hard level.

3. Walls Shifting Intraday

Even flow-GEX shows walls that move. A large institutional order in 0DTE calls can shift the call wall $2-3 in a single print. This is most common in the first 30 minutes of trading (as overnight positioning is established) and in the last 60 minutes (as large players roll or close expiring positions). Strategies that enter near a wall should use a buffer — don't short the call wall to the penny; leave a $0.50-1.00 buffer and require price to show rejection before entering, rather than entering mechanically at the wall price.

4. GEX Doesn't Tell You Everything — Vanna and Charm

GEX captures the gamma component of dealer hedging. It says nothing about vanna (the change in delta with respect to implied volatility) or charm (the change in delta with respect to time). On days when the VIX is moving significantly, vanna flows can dwarf gamma flows — especially for index ETFs where a large vanna exposure from the options skew can add or subtract hundreds of millions of dollars of synthetic share buying or selling that GEX does not capture. Similarly, charm flows compound near expiration as options lose time value. For a full picture, combine GEX with the vanna and charm exposure data — particularly on high-vol days or into the final hour of expiration.

5. 0DTE Distortions

0DTE options have extreme gamma near their strikes — orders of magnitude higher than options expiring in a week. This creates a situation where the 0DTE chain can dominate the total GEX surface even if 0DTE OI is modest relative to full-chain OI. On 0DTE expiration days (SPY now has one every weekday), 0DTE GEX typically accounts for 40-70% of total net GEX even though 0DTE OI is a smaller fraction of total OI. This is not a bug — it is the correct math — but it means the call and put walls derived from the full-chain GEX on expiration days are dominated by the 0DTE strikes, not the weekly or monthly strikes. For a clean structural read on non-0DTE days, use the full-chain settled GEX. On expiration days, the 0DTE-specific endpoints give you the highest-resolution view of the expiration mechanics.

6. Low-Liquidity Names

GEX works best when open interest is high and distributed across multiple strikes. On low-liquidity single names (small-cap stocks, names with thin options markets), OI may be concentrated in just 2-3 strikes, the bid-ask spreads are wide, and dealer hedging may not be a significant driver of price action at all — the underlying's own order flow dominates. A rule of thumb: if a name has fewer than 5,000 contracts of total OI, treat GEX signals with significant skepticism. The larger the total OI relative to average daily volume, the more reliable the GEX signals.

7. Index vs Single-Name Differences

Index products (SPX, SPY, QQQ) have the most well-behaved GEX signals because: (a) they are highly diversified — no single-stock news event blows up the gamma profile; (b) they have massive OI spread across many strikes, creating smooth, continuous GEX surfaces; (c) they have the most sophisticated dealer hedging infrastructure. Single-name stocks, especially tech names like NVDA and TSLA, have lumpy OI concentrated around round numbers and earnings-adjacent strikes. Their GEX walls hold less consistently, their flips can gap on news, and the dealer-short convention is less reliable (many large institutions buy index-hedging puts in single names, flipping the dealer to long-gamma on the put side). This does not mean GEX is useless on single names — it means the signals should be held with lower conviction and confirmed by flow-GEX before trading.

8. False Flips

A false flip occurs when price crosses the settled-GEX flip but the real (flow-GEX) flip has not moved. This happens because intraday flow has been building new positive-gamma OI above spot, shifting the real flip to a higher level — but the settled chart still shows the flip at yesterday's level. A trader using settled GEX sees a "flip breach" and enters a negative-gamma trend trade, only to find the market immediately mean-reverting. The antidote: always confirm regime changes with flow-GEX before switching playbooks. Require price to close through the flow-GEX flip, not just touch the settled flip.

9. Gamma Flip ≠ GEX Zero

A subtle but important point: the gamma flip (the price where net GEX changes sign) is not the same as the price level where total GEX is zero in dollar terms. Because gamma is not linear, the flip occurs at the price where the marginal dollar-GEX contribution switches sign — which is generally near the highest-OI region, not at the center of the distribution. In practice, the API-reported flip is the correct number to use; do not try to compute it yourself from the bar chart as "where the chart crosses zero."

Worked Examples

Example 1: SPY Positive Gamma Pin Day

Setup: It is Wednesday morning. Settled GEX shows SPY with a call wall at $595, put wall at $589, gamma flip at $591.50. Net GEX is +$4.2 billion. SPY opens at $592.80 — above the flip, well inside the walls. The 0DTE pin score is 72/100 with a magnet at $593.

Read: Dealers are net long gamma. Every dollar SPY moves up toward $595, dealers sell. Every dollar down toward $589, dealers buy. The $593 strike has the highest 0DTE OI concentration — the magnet. This is a classic positive-gamma pin setup.

Trade: At 11:00 AM, SPY is at $592.30 and drifting. Pull flow-GEX: flip is at $591.80, consistent with settled GEX. The walls have not moved. Enter an iron condor: sell the $595 call / buy $597 call, sell the $589 put / buy $587 put. Premium collected: $0.90. Max loss: $1.10. Risk: $110/contract.

Management: Set a stop if SPY closes above $595.50 or below $588.50 (wall plus buffer). Check flow-GEX at 1:30 PM — walls have tightened: call wall now $594.50, put wall $589.50. Still inside. Close the position at 3:30 PM for $0.70 (78% of premium captured).

Result: SPY closed at $592.80 — pinned to the magnet. Iron condor expired worthless, full premium kept. The dealer mechanics worked exactly as expected.

Example 2: NVDA Negative Gamma Breakout

Setup: It is a Thursday. NVDA has been drifting down all morning. Settled GEX shows a gamma flip at $121.50. NVDA is at $119.80, 1.4% below the flip. Net GEX is -$640 million. The put wall is at $115, but flow-GEX shows it drifting lower to $113 as new near-term puts are bought. Dealer risk classifier reads: "amplifying".

Read: NVDA is in negative gamma. Dealers are short gamma — they will sell as NVDA falls, amplifying the move. The put wall is at $115-113, $5-7 below current price. There is no structural support between $119.80 and $115. The regime is fully negative.

Trade: At 10:45 AM, NVDA breaks below $119 on volume. Enter a $118/$115 put debit spread (buy $118 put, sell $115 put). Cost: $1.05. Max profit: $1.95 (if NVDA closes at or below $115). Max loss: $1.05.

Management: Stop if NVDA reclaims $120.50 (above the prior day's settled flip with buffer — would signal a potential false flip or regime change). Target is $115 (put wall). At 1:15 PM, NVDA is at $116.20. Close the spread for $1.60.

Result: +$0.55/contract. The negative-gamma cascade provided the momentum; the put wall at $115 provided a clean target. Defined-risk structure kept the loss limited on the position.

The GEX Tooling: FlashAlpha Endpoints and the MCP Connector

REST API Endpoints

FlashAlpha exposes four primary endpoints for GEX trading:

Endpoint	Tier	What You Get
/v1/exposure/gex/{ticker}	Free	Settled GEX by strike, net GEX, and gamma flip — computed from morning OI. The structural baseline for any ticker. Use with /v1/exposure/levels to get call wall and put wall as derived key levels.
/v1/flow/gex/{ticker}	Growth	Flow-GEX: recomputes the full GEX surface against effective OI (settled + intraday simulator). Returns live_net_gex, live_gamma_flip, and live per-strike profiles. Shows how today's trading is shifting the dealer book in real time.
/v1/flow/dealer-risk/{ticker}	Growth	Composite settled-vs-live shift metric: returns flow_direction (amplifying / dampening), flow_gex_pct_shift (how much GEX has moved since open), plus settled and live GEX/DEX side by side. The one-line pre-trade regime check.
/v1/exposure/levels/{ticker}	Free/Growth	Computed key levels: gamma flip, call wall, put wall, zero-gamma level, and high-vol move targets. Clean reference levels without the full by-strike breakdown.

import requests

BASE = "https://lab.flashalpha.com"
HEADERS = {"X-Api-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

# Settled GEX  -  structural baseline (free)
settled = requests.get(f"{BASE}/v1/exposure/gex/SPY", headers=HEADERS).json()
print(f"Settled flip: ${settled['gamma_flip']}")
print(f"Net GEX: ${settled['net_gex']:,.0f}")
print(f"GEX label: {settled['net_gex_label']}")  # positive | negative

# Key levels  -  call wall, put wall, gamma flip (free)
levels = requests.get(f"{BASE}/v1/exposure/levels/SPY", headers=HEADERS).json()
print(f"Call wall: ${levels['levels']['call_wall']}")
print(f"Put wall: ${levels['levels']['put_wall']}")
print(f"Gamma flip: ${levels['levels']['gamma_flip']}")

# Flow-GEX  -  live dealer positioning (Growth)
flow = requests.get(f"{BASE}/v1/flow/gex/SPY", headers=HEADERS).json()
print(f"Live flip: ${flow['live_gamma_flip']}")
print(f"Live net GEX: ${flow['live_net_gex']:,.0f}")

# Dealer risk classifier  -  one-line regime check (Growth)
risk = requests.get(f"{BASE}/v1/flow/dealer-risk/SPY", headers=HEADERS).json()
print(f"Flow direction: {risk['flow_direction']}")  # amplifying | dampening
print(f"GEX shift vs settled: {risk['flow_gex_pct_shift']:+.1%}")

The GEX MCP Persona Connector — Bring GEX Into Claude, Cursor, or Any AI Tool

FlashAlpha's most direct integration path for GEX traders is the GEX persona MCP connector — a Model Context Protocol server tuned specifically for dealer-gamma and key-level work. Add it to any MCP-compatible AI tool (Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code) and you can ask questions like "Is SPY in positive or negative gamma right now?" or "What are NVDA's key GEX levels?" and get live, data-backed answers without writing a single line of code.

Two endpoints, depending on your client:

Client	URL	Auth
claude.ai (web browser)	https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp-oauth/gex	OAuth — sign in once with your FlashAlpha account
Claude Desktop, Claude Code CLI, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code	https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp/gex	API key — pass X-Api-Key header or tell Claude your key in the first message

The GEX persona connector exposes the same 40 tools as the generic FlashAlpha MCP server (23 live + 17 historical replay), but is framed and ordered for dealer-gamma work — the GEX tools are surfaced first, and the system prompt is tuned for gamma, walls, flip, and regime questions. If you use Claude for broader options work, the generic server at https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp covers everything in one connection.

To add the connector in Claude Desktop:

# Add via Claude Code CLI
claude mcp add flashalpha-gex --transport http https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp/gex

# Then in Claude: "My FlashAlpha API key is YOUR_KEY. What regime is SPY in?"

For a step-by-step walkthrough of both OAuth and API-key setups across all clients, see Connect Claude to FlashAlpha — MCP and OAuth Setup Guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is gamma exposure (GEX) and how is it calculated?

GEX measures the aggregate gamma exposure of options dealers across the entire options chain of a stock or ETF. At each strike, it multiplies the option's gamma by open interest, applies the dealer-short convention (assumes dealers are short the options retail and institutional buyers hold), and converts to a dollar figure representing how many dollars of the underlying dealers must trade per 1% price move. Positive net GEX = dealers long gamma (stabilizing); negative net GEX = dealers short gamma (amplifying). See the formulas in the The Math section above.

What is the difference between settled GEX and flow-GEX?

Settled GEX is computed from the morning open-interest broadcast — accurate at the open, but it does not update during the trading day. Flow-GEX recomputes the same surface against effective OI: settled OI plus FlashAlpha's intraday simulator's estimate of positions opened or closed since the open. By midday, flow-GEX can show a flip and walls that are $2-5 away from the settled read on active names. Use settled GEX for structural context; use flow-GEX for intraday trading decisions after 11 AM ET.

How does positive gamma become negative gamma intraday?

Regime changes happen when: (1) price moves through the gamma flip level, taking the book from net long gamma to net short gamma (or vice versa); (2) intraday flow adds significant new short-gamma OI (e.g., a large put buyer adds dealer-long-put = dealer-short-gamma exposure); or (3) near-dated options expire, removing a large positive-gamma contribution. Flow-GEX tracks these shifts in near real-time; settled GEX cannot capture them.

Which plan unlocks flow-GEX and dealer risk?

Single-expiry settled GEX (/v1/exposure/gex) and key levels (/v1/exposure/levels) are on the Free tier. Flow-GEX (/v1/flow/gex) and net dealer risk (/v1/flow/dealer-risk) require the Growth plan ($239/mo billed annually). The raw OI simulator state and live flow bundle are Alpha.

Does GEX work on single-name stocks or only indexes?

GEX works on any US equity or ETF with listed options. Index symbols (SPX, VIX) require Basic plan or higher on any endpoint. That said, GEX signals are more reliable on high-OI names with liquid options markets. For stocks with fewer than 5,000 contracts total OI, treat GEX as directional context rather than a hard level-trading signal.

What is the dealer-short convention and why does it matter?

The GEX dealer-positioning convention models dealers as long calls and short puts — the consensus assumption that customers buy puts as hedges and overwrite calls for income, leaving dealers on the other side. This lets GEX be computed from public OI without knowing each dealer's true book. It is an approximation: some flow runs the other way (institutions buy calls outright or sell puts), and dealer-to-dealer trades muddy the split, so the standard model misclassifies a share of OI. The convention works best on liquid names where retail and small-institutional flow dominates; it is less reliable for names where index-fund hedging or institutional positioning is a large share of total OI.

Why do GEX walls sometimes not hold?

Several factors break walls: (1) Large directional flow overwhelms the dealer hedging — if institutional buying exceeds dealer selling at the call wall, the wall gives. (2) The wall has shifted intraday (stale settled GEX) — what shows as a wall has actually moved, and you are fading air. (3) Event vol overrides the gamma mechanics — FOMC, CPI, or earnings-adjacent flow creates IV moves that trigger vanna and charm flows larger than the gamma flows. (4) Low OI / low-liquidity name where dealer hedging is not the dominant price driver. Always confirm with flow-GEX and the dealer risk classifier before relying on a wall as a hard level.

How do I add the FlashAlpha GEX connector to Claude?

For claude.ai web: Go to Settings → Customize → Connectors → Add custom connector, enter https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp-oauth/gex, click Connect, and sign in with your FlashAlpha account. For Claude Desktop / Claude Code / Cursor: Add https://lab.flashalpha.com/mcp/gex as an HTTP MCP server and provide your API key in the first message. Full walkthrough: Connect Claude to FlashAlpha.

Related Reading

• What Is Gamma Exposure (GEX), Explained — foundational mechanics for GEX beginners
• How to Read a GEX-By-Strike Chart — visual guide to interpreting the bar chart, call wall, put wall, and flip
• Call Wall, Put Wall & Gamma Flip Explained — deep dive on the three key GEX levels
• Live GEX vs Settled GEX, Intraday Flow Explained — when and why to switch from settled to flow-GEX
• Effective Open Interest: Live GEX from Flow — how the intraday OI simulator works under the hood
• Why GEX Isn't Enough: Vanna & Charm — the second-order Greeks that GEX alone misses
• SPY GEX Guide: Live Gamma Levels & Dealer Hedging — SPY-specific GEX walkthrough and playbook
• Real-Time GEX by Strike: Dealer Gamma Exposure & SPY Key Levels — live data tutorial
• 0DTE SPY Playbook — how GEX interacts with same-day expiration mechanics
• Connect Claude to FlashAlpha (MCP + OAuth) — add the GEX persona connector to your AI toolchain
• GEX API Documentation — full endpoint reference for /v1/exposure/gex
• Flow-GEX API Documentation — full endpoint reference for /v1/flow/gex