A single off-exchange execution
Reported to the tape and plotted on the price action at the point where it happened, with price, size and notional. The circle is as big as the size.
THE VOLWICK TERMINAL
Get the data that for years stayed off retail charts.
Dark Pool, dealer exposure, positioning, CVD, CDI and order flow. Volwick brings together on one chart information that normally takes separate sources, tools and reads.
- See where big size goes through.
- Where exposure concentrates.
- Where aggression comes in.
- How positioning shifts.
Price stays the same. What you can see around it changes completely.
Price only. You see the outcome.
OFF-EXCHANGE LIQUIDITY
For years, only professional traders saw this data. Now it’s on your chart.
Millions can be executed away from the regular order book without being shown to other participants in advance. But once the execution is reported to the market, it leaves a trace.
Volwick takes that trace and plots it right on the price action: the relevant off-exchange executions at the point where they happened, with price, size and notional.
You no longer have to look only at the candle left behind after the move. You can see part of the activity that went through behind that candle.
SIMULATED DATA
A simulated SPY session replaying one minute at a time, with off-exchange prints drawn where they happened and the levels they build shown on the left.
FLOW
LEVELS
DARK POOL · SPYTAPE · OFF-EXCHANGE≥ 5,000
| TIME | SIZE | PRICE | NOTIONAL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:00:00 | 72,000 | 773.20 | $55.7M |
| 10:55:08 | 15,000 | 772.95 | $11.6M |
| 10:47:25 | 9,000 | 772.36 | $7.0M |
| 10:44:47 | 210,000 | 772.41 | $162.2M |
| 10:36:04 | 6,000 | 772.70 | $4.6M |
| 10:31:32 | 38,000 | 772.38 | $29.4M |
| 10:28:34 | 120,000 | 772.34 | $92.7M |
| 10:26:13 | 460,000 | 772.36 | $355.3M |
| 10:22:58 | 64,000 | 772.52 | $49.4M |
772.35 · 627K · 4
FLOW All: every off-exchange execution above 5,000 shares, with a circle sized to the print. LEVELS Today: the levels built in today’s session. The strongest is gold, with two stars.
WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING AT
Not a forecast.
Money that has already gone through the market.
A dark pool is an off-exchange trading venue where orders are not displayed in advance on the regular public book. This makes it possible to execute large orders without showing the market your full intent ahead of time.
But once the trade is executed and reported to the consolidated tape, that activity becomes observable. That’s where Volwick comes in: the terminal detects the relevant executions and plots them on the price action.
- PRICING
- where the execution took place
- SIZE
- how much was executed
- NOTIONAL
- how much capital the transaction represents
Not a guessed hidden order. Not a forecast. An execution actually reported to the market.
- OFF-EXCHANGE VENUEOrders are not displayed in advance on the public book.
- EXECUTIONThe trade is executed. Price and size are final.
- CONSOLIDATED TAPEThe transaction is reported to the tape, alongside the regular market flow.
- VOLWICKVolwick filters the most relevant executions and plots them on the price action, at the point where they happened.
FROM EXECUTION TO STRUCTURE
A print shows you where size went through.
A cluster shows you where it still matters.
A single execution tells you about one event. When several relevant executions start clustering in the same price area, the information changes: you’re no longer looking at a transaction, but at a zone where the market has traded significant size again and again.
CLUSTER
Several executions clustered in the same area
A tight sequence of prints at the same price is no longer an isolated event. Volwick shows their size and concentration.
LEVEL
The concentration stays visible on the chart
At least three executions create a level, which stays in memory for about ten days. The ten strongest appear on the chart. Volwick doesn’t interpret intent: it shows the concentration.
THRESHOLDS AND MEMORY
Every market has its own size.
Volwick highlights the size that matters.
- Instruments
- SPY · QQQ
- Block threshold
- 5,000 shares
- Mega threshold
- 50,000 shares
- LEVEL
- At least 3 executions
- Memory
- About 10 days
- On the chart
- The 10 strongest levels
FROM DATA TO READ
Knowing where size went through
changes the way you look at price.
A Dark Pool level doesn’t automatically tell you whether to buy or sell. It tells you something different: the market has already traded significant size here. When price comes back to that area you can watch how it reacts, knowing the level doesn’t come from a line drawn on the chart but from activity that was actually executed.
HOLD
The level holds
Price reaches the area and can’t push through it decisively. The earlier concentration lines up with a reaction area.
ABSORPTION
Pressure arrives, price doesn’t
Pressure hits the level, new executions cluster at the same price, but the market struggles to follow through. That’s the dynamic to watch.
BREAK
The market cuts through the area
Price moves past the level and keeps going. The earlier concentration isn’t producing a reaction strong enough to contain the move.
CONFLUENCE
Another structure at the same price
The level lines up with a Dealer Wall or another independent Volwick structure. More context to read the reaction.
TWO SOURCES. ONE MARKET.
One part of the market shows where capital is positioned. The other shows what’s happening right now.
To understand Volwick, you need to understand this split. Everything you see on the chart comes from one of these two sources, and the terminal always keeps them separate.
POSITIONING · THE OPTIONS BOOK
Where capital is positioned.
The options market tells you how exposure is distributed around price. Dealer Walls, Exposure Maps and the reads derived from positioning turn this structure into readable levels and maps. It’s a structural read, with a snapshot of the book every 5 minutes.
SNAPSHOT EVERY 5 MIN
TAPE · WHAT HAS BEEN EXECUTED
What’s happening right now.
Executions tell you what actually went through the market. Price, volume, CVD and Dark Pool prints show what’s happening in the session. It’s a live read: it arrives as soon as the execution is reported.
On their own, they describe two different parts of the market. When structure and executions start pointing to the same area, the read gets far more interesting.
DEALER EXPOSURE
See where exposure concentrates before price gets there.
Behind every candle there’s an options market with hundreds of strikes and different amounts of exposure. A regular chart doesn’t show you that. Volwick does.
The terminal analyzes the available structure of the options market and turns the most relevant concentrations into levels right on the price action. These are the Dealer Walls.
Not hand-drawn support and resistance. Not levels derived from the shape of the candles. Levels built from the exposure structure that exists around price.
WALLS
Top 15: the terminal’s default setting, the one the product is designed around.
FROM THE BOOK TO THE CHART
Hundreds of strikes go into the calculation.
Only the ones that matter reach the chart.
An index book can hold hundreds of strikes at once: the source panel reports, for example,
. Showing them all would turn useful information into noise. Volwick ranks them by exposure and proximity to the current price.
The search starts from a band of about 1.5% above and below spot and widens up to 4% only when more candidates are needed. That way a huge exposure far from the market doesn’t take the place of a closer level that matters more for the session.
- TOP 3
- the dominant concentrations
- TOP 5
- the essential structure around price
- TOP 10
- more context
- TOP 15
- the terminal’s full read
NOT ALL WALLS ARE EQUAL
The same level can slow price down.
Or help it accelerate.
The Wall’s number tells you where exposure is concentrated. Its classification adds the context you need to understand how that structure can interact with price: who dominates the strike, calls or puts, and the sign of the gamma the dealer carries there. Green and red can slow price down. Cyan and magenta can accelerate it.
Green and red can slow price down. Cyan and magenta can accelerate it.
CALL WALL · LONG γ
An area that can slow price
- THE DEALER
- Sells into strength to stay hedged.
- ON THE CHART
- Hedging flows can help push back against a rally.
- THE READ
- An area of possible stalling, not a reversal signal.
PUT WALL · LONG γ
An area that can absorb
- THE DEALER
- Buys into weakness to stay hedged.
- ON THE CHART
- Hedging flows can help absorb a decline.
- THE READ
- An area of possible absorption, not a bearish signal.
CALL WALL · SHORT γ
Accelerator above
- THE DEALER
- Has to buy as price rises.
- ON THE CHART
- If the level breaks, hedging can help amplify the move.
- THE READ
- A break here should be read with the flow, not faded on principle.
PUT WALL · SHORT γ
Accelerator below
- THE DEALER
- Has to sell as price falls.
- ON THE CHART
- Below the level, hedging can help amplify the decline.
- THE READ
- Not to be read as support to buy.
CONTEXT BEFORE THE LEVEL
A Wall means nothing
if you don’t know what market you’re reading it in.
The same level can behave very differently in two regimes. That’s why Volwick doesn’t just show the Walls: it calculates the gamma context around spot. The badge in the top left sums dealer gamma within 2% of spot and expresses it as net over gross. Above +5% it’s POSITIVE, below −5% NEGATIVE, MIXED in between. You don’t eyeball it: the terminal calculates it.
In a positive regime, dealer hedging tends to buy dips and sell rallies, and the Walls act as brakes more often. In a negative regime the same hedging can fuel the move: a put wall below price can turn into an air pocket instead of support. The regime describes the structure; it doesn’t guarantee how price will behave.
The Wall shows you the level. The regime tells you what structure that level lives in.
net / gross of dealer gamma within ±2% of spot
THE WALL SLOWS PRICE
AIR POCKET
NOT JUST WHERE. HOW MUCH, TOO.
Two levels can sit ten points apart.
And carry completely different weight.
Volwick doesn’t treat every Wall the same way. Each level keeps its identity, metric, sign, rank and relative intensity: a dot in the wall’s color and a label in the right lane, always in the same format, with the strike and the exposure value.
- ★
- The biggest wall of the day. Only one star per screen, because rank is already shown in four other ways.
- STRIKE
- The strike, on the scale of the instrument you’re looking at. On ES, a small note shows the index strike it comes from.
- GEX
- The dealer’s exposure per point of movement, always signed: plus means dealers are long, minus means dealers are short.
The number isn’t money someone pays you or that you receive: it measures how much hedging is anchored to that price. The bigger it is, the more hedging trades can kick in when price gets there. Gamma and delta use different units and can’t be compared with each other: each metric is weighed against itself.
RANK READS FOUR WAYS
THICKNESS
OPACITY
DASHES
FADE
FROM RAW DATA TO YOUR READ
You don’t have to adapt to the data.
You decide which part of the structure you want to see.
Three controls decide what reaches the chart. The working setup is Top 15, GEX, All: the fifteen strikes carrying the most gamma near price, across all expiries.
WALLS
How much structure to see
Off · Top 3 · Top 5 · Top 10 · Top 15Top 15 is the default and stays saved after a reload. Top 5 is the main read, Top 10 the context.
METRIC
Which exposure to measure
GEX · CEX · DEX · ALLGEX is gamma, CEX is charm, DEX is delta, ALL shows them together with a prefix on the label. Switching metric really changes the data on SPX, VIX, ES, MES and VX; elsewhere the walls stay gamma.
EXPIRY
Which expiries matter today
0DTE · This week · This month · AllEach option shows the live strike count. It filters both the walls and the map behind the candles.
DEALER BOOK
via SPX · GEX dealer walls · 338 strikes · all expiriesSPX, ES, MES, VIX and VX read the dealers’ signed book. On ES and MES the index book is mapped onto the futures scale using an estimated basis.
ESTIMATED
estimated from open interest · not a dealer bookSPY, QQQ, NQ, RTY and GOLD have no signed book: the walls are estimated from open interest. You read them the same way, and the terminal says so clearly, so you always know what data you’re working with.
FROM THE LEVEL TO THE WHOLE STRUCTURE
A Wall shows you one price. The Maps show you everything around it.
Positioning doesn’t just exist on individual strikes. It exists above price, below price, and it changes during the session.
Exposure Maps turns this structure into a price-by-time surface painted right behind the price action. Each column is a snapshot; each price band shows how exposure changes in that area.
Column after column, Volwick builds a map that lets you watch how the structure around price evolves during the session.
MAPS
13:45 ETA MAP YOU READ IN A SECOND
Before you even look at the numbers,
you see where the structure changes.
All five maps share the same color axis, and it means the same thing everywhere. Green is the side where dealers buy: supportive, dampening, calm. Red is the side where they sell: pressure, amplification.
The scale is calculated across the whole session, not column by column: 09:45 compares directly with 15:45. If a heavier column comes in later, earlier ones can change color. It’s not a bug: the scale has learned more.
- 64 steps per side. Intensity is magnitude: a faint shade is a real value, just a small one.
- Nothing is black. Even the weakest cell keeps its color, so near zero you always know which side you’re on.
- Color is the sign. Green: dealers buy. Red: dealers sell. The same on all five maps.
WHERE THE STRUCTURE CHANGES
There’s a price where
the dynamic can switch sides.
The white dashes mark where the field crosses zero, where red turns green. It’s the price where dealer hedging behavior can flip. On the gamma map it’s the volatility pivot: on one side hedging tends to dampen, on the other it tends to amplify.
When the book has no zero crossing, the legend says so in words: no sign change in this book. There’s no point hunting for a flip that isn’t there.
FIVE MAPS
Five different ways
to see what price alone can’t show you.
One map at a time, picked from the MAPS button. Each one answers a different question about the structure: first understand what it measures, then read the color.
γ Map
Is the market absorbing the move, or at risk of amplifying it?
WHAT IT MEASURESHow much dealer hedging changes when price moves. It tells you whether that hedging tends to go against the move or in the same direction.
GREENDealers long gamma: hedging pushes against the move. Price tends to get stickier and trade sideways.
REDDealers short gamma: hedging can add to the move, and moves tend to accelerate.
HOW TO USE ITIn a green field, you trade the edges. In a red field a break tends to run: fading it means fighting the context.
TYPICAL READA green band on either side of spot with red wedges above the ceiling and below the floor: a range day, and it shows you where the range ends.
Charm
Even when price doesn’t move, time keeps changing positioning.
WHAT IT MEASURESHow dealer hedging changes just from the passage of time, with price standing still. Options time decay shifts delta and forces rebalancing.
GREENDealers have to buy as the day goes on: a mechanical push higher.
REDThey have to sell: mechanical pressure lower.
HOW TO USE ITIt dominates the last two hours. The moment the color flips is the moment forced flow switches sides, and it can line up with a turning point in the day.
TYPICAL READA red morning turning green around midday and strengthening into the close, with the flip a few points below spot.
Vega
If the market takes off, how unstable can it get?
WHAT IT MEASURESDealer exposure to implied volatility: how their hedging behaves if volatility suddenly jumps.
GREENDealers long volatility: in a shock they tend to sell volatility and calm it down. Stabilizing.
REDDealers short volatility: in a shock they have to buy it and can fuel it. The unstable side.
HOW TO USE ITRed here doesn’t mean down. It means that if something happens, it can happen fast. Use it for sizing, not for picking a side.
TYPICAL READA calm green field in the middle of the range with red pockets at the extremes: the market behaves until it breaks out of there.
Volga
Volatility can die out. Or it can start feeding on itself.
WHAT IT MEASURESHow Vega changes when volatility changes. It’s the next step after Vega: it tells you whether amplification tends to fade or grow.
GREENSelf-correcting: if vol rises, dealers get longer, they sell, and the move tends to run out of steam.
REDCascading: if vol rises, they get shorter, have to buy even more, and volatility can widen.
HOW TO USE ITRead it after Vega. First ask whether the move is being amplified, then whether the amplification feeds itself.
TYPICAL READGreen on green is the quietest setup the map can show.
Delta
See how much hedging stands between price and another level.
WHAT IT MEASURESThe futures hedge dealers need to hold at each price. Comparing two prices shows how much hedging has to change hands to get from one to the other.
GREENTo reach that price, dealers have to buy futures. Supportive.
REDTo get there, they have to sell them. Pressure.
HOW TO USE ITRead two prices and subtract: the difference is how much hedging has to change hands to travel from one to the other.
TYPICAL READIt comes from the same book as gamma, of which it’s the integral: it costs no extra data and can’t contradict it.
WHEN ONE DATA POINT ISN’T ENOUGH
The edge isn’t having more data.
It’s seeing when different information tells the same story.
Some questions can’t be answered by a single map. Vega and Volga are read as a pair; Delta is read between two prices. Combinations add context, not certainty.
Read them together.
Green on green. Green on green is the quietest setup the map can show.
Red on red. The loaded spring: dealers are short volatility and get shorter if it rises. A small catalyst can turn into a fast expansion . The typical risk here is a quick blowout, not a slow grind.
Read two prices and subtract.
The difference between two prices is how much futures hedging has to change hands to travel from one to the other. “How much buying is there between here and 7,750?” is a question only this map can answer.
The zero on the Delta map is a different price from the gamma flip: they’re two separate levels.
There’s no Vanna map and no Regime map: vanna appears as a badge in the Market Intelligence panel, and regime as one of its rows.
REAL AGGRESSION
Price shows you it’s moving. CVD shows you the pressure behind it.
A candle can rise for very different reasons. There may be aggressive buying. Or there may simply be no sellers strong enough to stop it. On the chart the moves look alike. In the flow they don’t.
Cumulative Volume Delta adds up, across the whole session, aggressive buying minus aggressive selling, classified by the side that crossed the spread.
WHAT IT READS
A CVD of large executions, not of every tick: only executions above the instrument’s threshold count, for example 100 contracts on ES or 5,000 shares on SPY. Executions inside the spread have no side and aren’t counted.
HOW TO READ IT
The key read is divergence. A new price high without a new CVD high wasn’t bought aggressively: it was carried mostly by a lack of sellers. Price and CVD making the new extreme together describe a confirmed move.
EXAMPLE
CVD header +40 contracts. The scale adapts to what’s on screen: read the shape against price, never the height in pixels.
- Instruments
- SPY · QQQ · ES · MES · NQ · VX · RTY · GOLD · BTC
- Unit
- Contracts or shares
- Basis
- Only executions above the threshold
- Update
- Live
THREE TYPICAL READS
Price can make a new high.
The pressure behind that high may not be there.
Confirmed move
Price and CVD make a new high together: there’s aggressive buying behind the move.
Divergence
New price high without a new CVD high: the rally came from a lack of sellers, not from aggressive buying.
Wall break
A Dealer Wall break backed by aggression in large executions is a different event from the same break on a flat tape.
0DTE PRESSURE
Millions flow into options that expire today. Volwick shows you where that premium is going.
0DTE options can concentrate a large amount of activity within the same session. CDI brings this pressure next to the price action and makes it readable minute by minute.
Premium in dollars, one bar per minute on the same axis as the candles: calls up in green, puts down in red.
WHAT IT READS
Premium dollars, not contracts and not delta. On SPX, ES and MES it reads the weekly index book expiring today, on SPY the SPY book, on QQQ the QQQ book.
HOW TO READ IT
The daily read isn’t the trend, it’s the spike: a tall, isolated bar means someone just spent real money on calls or puts in that minute. A flat panel tells you the 0DTE tape has no opinion today.
SINGLE LEG
Not all volume expresses a direction. Volwick separates the part that can. An iron condor prints two calls and two puts at once: in an all legs view it shows up as a two-sided spike that expresses no direction at all. Single leg strips it out, so a tall green bar really is someone buying calls.
- Instruments
- SPX · ES · MES · SPY · QQQ
- Unit
- Premium dollars
- Basis
- Single leg · 0DTE
- Freshness
- Green ‹ 30s · amber ‹ 3 min
THREE TYPICAL READS
A spike tells you someone
just spent real premium.
Isolated spike
One tall bar among short ones: someone just spent real money on calls in that minute.
Flat panel
Short, even bars on both sides: today the 0DTE tape has no opinion, and that’s information too.
Put spike
The same logic on the other side: premium concentrated in puts within a single minute.
PREMIUM BUILDING THROUGH THE SESSION
Don’t just watch the last trade. Watch which side capital is building on.
Options Flow tracks how directional premium builds up through the day.
Three cumulative lines across the whole session: calls bought at the ask minus calls sold at the bid, puts sold at the bid minus puts bought at the ask, and the net of the two.
WHAT IT READS
Single-leg premium expiring today, in dollars. The two colored lines are drawn on a “bullish is up” basis: green rising is call buying, red falling is put buying. Red rising means puts being sold.
HOW TO READ IT
The gray net line and its zero crossing: it’s the moment the day’s directional premium switches sides. It’s a change in pressure, not an automatic trading signal. Green dropping below red means put demand has overtaken call demand in dollars.
EXAMPLE
C $4.20M · P −$1.11M · NET $3.09M: the number to quote is the net, with its sign. Before quoting it, check the data’s age in the header: if it reads 13.6h ago, you’re looking at the previous session.
- Instruments
- SPX · ES · MES · SPY
- Unit
- Premium dollars
- Basis
- Single leg · 0DTE
- Use
- A reading tool
THREE TYPICAL READS
When the net crosses zero,
something in the day’s pressure has changed.
Net above zero
The dashed net line stays above zero: in dollars, today’s directional premium is on the call side.
Zero crossing
The net crosses zero: it’s the moment the day’s directional premium switches sides.
Check the age
Before quoting a number, look at the header: if it reads 13.6h ago, you’re looking at the previous session, not today’s.
VOLWICK · MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Six sources see six parts of the market. Volwick brings them into a single read.
- Dark Pool shows where size went through.
- Dealer Walls shows where exposure concentrates.
- Exposure Maps shows how that structure changes around price.
- CVD reads aggression.
- CDI tracks 0DTE premium minute by minute.
- Options Flow follows how that premium builds up through the session.
Market Intelligence puts it all in the same context. It’s not a black box: the information the panel uses is the same you can see on the chart. Volwick organizes and condenses it into a coherent read of the session, always in the same order.
ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE · ES
VERDICT
ENTER NOW
MED conviction
strong γ magnet pulling price UP 11pt to 7735
THE PLAN
Two governing walls define a working range
TRADE fade the edges
STOP beyond the walls
REGIME
RANGE DAY
Hedging tends to dampen moves.
LEVELS ON THE CHART
7,750 CALL WALL
7,735 MAGNET
7,720 CALL WALL
7,724 price now
7,700 PUT WALL
7,685 PUT WALL
- 1VERDICTThe summary of the session: arrow, direction and instrument, with conviction underneath. Then the magnet with its distance, and the badges showing which forces are at work: gamma, charm, vanna.
- 2THE PLANThe title talks about levels and time to the close, not forecasts. Underneath is the setup, one of seven , with the two strikes governing the session, the width in points and two lines in plain words: how the terminal reads the structure and where that read stops holding.
- 3REGIMEThe main context: it tells you whether dealer hedging tends to dampen or amplify moves today. Check it before any read that goes against the move.
- 4LEVELS ON THE CHARTThe same walls as the chart, same numbers, same order, same colors. Current price sits in the middle: above it the structures to clear, below it the ones that can support . Click a row to center the chart on that level.
CONVICTION
One source pointing in a direction isn’t enough.
What counts is how many agree.
The score runs from −10 to +10 and measures how much the sources agree, not where price will go. It’s smoothed over the last three reads, so it moves in steps and doesn’t flicker.
From 6 up it’s HIGH and the arrow is double. From 3 it’s MED, single arrow. From 1.5 it’s LOW, diagonal arrow, and the panel writes “LONG bias” instead of the instrument name: the panel deliberately tones down its own language. Below 1.5 it’s NEUTRAL.
CONVICTION ↑ 4.1
WHEN THE READ CHANGES
Volwick doesn’t make you
stare at the panel to notice.
When the state of the read changes, a verb describing the change appears under the conviction. It stays visible for ninety seconds, then disappears on its own: if you see it once and can’t find it again, you didn’t imagine it. It describes how the read changed; it doesn’t guarantee the outcome of a trade.
- ENTER NOWThe read has just moved out of neutral.
- CLOSE POSITIONThe read has just gone back to neutral.
- FLIPThe direction has reversed.
- TRIM HALFConviction dropped one level.
- ADD BACKConviction rose one level.
WHEN THE MARKET MOVES FASTER THAN THE BOOK
The most important thing a model can know
is when not to trust its own read.
The options book is a snapshot taken at intervals; price moves continuously. When recent movement conflicts with the read of the structure, the system lowers conviction. If spot has moved five points or more against the score in the last half hour, the panel forces itself to NEUTRAL. It happens on gaps and news, when the book lags behind price. It can only lower conviction, never raise it: it’s the panel telling you that, right then, it doesn’t trust itself.
VELOCITY OVERRIDE
velocity override · raw 4.2 vs 30m +7.8ptWHERE GAMMA CONCENTRATES
Not a made-up target.
A real concentration in the structure.
The magnet is the dominant positive-gamma strike within thirty points of spot. The closer and heavier it is, the more the structure tends to pull price in, and its pull grows into the close as the day’s options decay. When charm dominates, the PIN row also appears, with the concentration and the strength of the pull.
The magnet doesn’t necessarily tell you where price will go. It shows a relevant structural concentration relative to spot.
MAGNET
The magnet is above spot: the structure pulls higher, with the distance shown in points.
MAGNET
The magnet is below: the same read, to the downside.
PINNED
Spot is within three points of the magnet: the context fits a tight range, and the edges matter.
NO WALLS
The magnet isn’t strong enough to hold price. It’s the most common state on quiet or short-gamma days: don’t read it as a target.
FROM SOURCES TO TRADING CONTEXT
Seven market structures.
Volwick recognizes which one you’re looking at.
The setup block is the line you read first. It’s damped so it doesn’t change state every minute and it can add a pivot: the short-gamma strike near spot that the day tends to swing around.
Spot is held by a dominant strike. The structure suggests a tight range, where the edges matter.
Two walls close enough to define a working range. The terminal reads the session between those two levels.
Spot is pressing against the upper wall. This is when you watch whether the area holds or gives way.
Spot is pressing against the lower wall. The same read, from the other side.
The governing walls are far away. The range exists but it’s wide, and the structure weighs less on price.
Negative γ regime: dealer hedging tends to amplify. Breaks can run, and the context works against reads that fade the move.
Nothing structural to read. The panel states that there’s no structure to base a read on.
THE CONTEXT THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING
The same breakout can be noise.
Or it can sit inside the structure that amplifies it.
Three states, one color each. Underneath is a line with the floor, the ceiling, the width and the dealers’ net hedge in the band: positive means stabilizing.
A warning about neutralized pairs near price can also appear: adjacent strikes with opposite signs that look like walls but don’t push together. They can’t be read on their own.
RANGE DAY
Hedging tends to dampen moves.
The context fits moves that revert: the edges of the range tend to act as reaction areas.
TREND DAY
Hedging can amplify breaks.
The dynamic can favor momentum through the walls. Reads that fade the move are working against the context.
MIXED REGIME
Close to neutral.
Neither side prevails: the terminal waits for a confirmed level break before giving the read any weight.
NOT A SNAPSHOT. A READ THAT EVOLVES.
The market changes through the day.
Volwick’s read changes with it.
At the open the walls are far away and the setup is almost always WIDE or NO STRUCTURE. That’s a legitimate answer, not a malfunction. As the hours go by the range tightens: WIDE becomes CEILING TEST or FLOOR TEST, then RANGE or PIN.
Charm’s weight grows into the close, so the magnet and PIN matter more after 14:00. The most reliable state is a high-conviction PIN on a range day in the last hour. The least reliable is NO STRUCTURE in a mixed regime, when the terminal itself says it has no structure to read.
- 09:35Start of the session: walls far from spot, a wide structure. The panel says there isn’t much to read yet, and that’s a legitimate answer.
- 12:10Midday: price is approaching the upper wall. The setup tightens from WIDE to CEILING TEST.
- 13:40A fast move against the score: the panel drops to NEUTRAL on its own. It’s telling you that, right then, it doesn’t trust itself.
- 15:20Last hour: both walls within half a percent, charm rising. It’s the highest-confidence state the panel can show.
TRANSPARENCY BEFORE PROMISES
Volwick shows you what it knows.
And above all, when it doesn’t.
A professional terminal doesn’t just have to show data. It has to make clear where the data comes from, how recent it is, when it’s estimated, when it’s missing and where what can be inferred ends.
THE SOURCE
The verdict is calculated from the index book even when you’re looking at ES. The title names the instrument you’ve opened; the source line names the book.
THE DATE
If the status bar says the book is from the previous session, the verdict, regime, magnet and levels refer to that date.
THE TRADE
No single wall is a trade. The strongest reads are the ones where two independent sources point to the same price area.
LIMITS OF DIRECTION
Direction inferred from dealer positioning has been tested repeatedly and turned out to be no better than a coin flip. That’s why the plan talks about levels and time, not forecasts.
ESTIMATED DATA
Where there’s no signed book, the walls are estimated from open interest. The terminal says so clearly next to the data.
MISSING DATA
If a feed drops or a book doesn’t exist, the panel stays empty or is shown dashed as NO DATA. No gap is ever filled with data from another market.
VOLWICK’S REAL EDGE
A single data point tells you about one part of the market. The edge comes when independent sources converge.
This is where Volwick stops being a collection of tools and becomes a reading system.
Two independent sources in the same area give you more context to interpret how price reacts. They don’t tell you which way it will go: they tell you where it’s worth watching more closely.
BOOK + TAPE
A heavy wall that’s also a Dark Pool level.
The options book tells you where exposure concentrates; the tape tells you where size actually went through. When a heavy Dealer Wall lines up with a Dark Pool level, two sources built in completely different ways point to the same area.
GAMMA + TIME
A magnet that lines up with a charm flip.
The price gamma tends to pull toward and the point where time-driven flow switches sides sit in the same area. Two different forces in the structure point to the same price, often with more weight into the close.
STRUCTURE + PREMIUM
A CDI spike that lands right on a wall.
0DTE premium concentrated in a single minute just as price touches a structural level. The structure tells you where, the premium tells you when: two sources talking about the same moment.
ONE TERMINAL. MANY MARKETS.
The same depth of read. On markets that normally need different tools.
Indices, futures, volatility, ETFs, metals and crypto live in the same environment.
But Volwick doesn’t pretend every data point exists everywhere: each market shows only the layers that are actually available, and the terminal never fills gaps with data taken from another market. Where there’s no signed book, the walls are estimated from open interest and say so clearly.
| Layer | SPX | ES | MES | NQ | RTY | VIX | VX | SPY | QQQ | GOLD | BTC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Signed dealer book | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· |
| Walls estimated from OI | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· |
| Full METRIC | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· |
| DEX | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· |
| Dark Pool | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· |
| CVD | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Available● | Available● | Available● |
| CDI | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· |
| Options Flow | Available● | Available● | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· | Available● | Not available· | Not available· | Not available· |
1m and 5m timeframes · regular session 09:30 to 16:00 ET · dealer book updated from 09:00 ET · times always in ET.
EVERY NUMBER SHOULD STAND UP TO QUESTIONS
If you don’t know where a data point comes from, you shouldn’t base a decision on it.
That’s why Volwick shows the origin, time, age and status of its sources right in the terminal.
Better a declared empty state than a number that looks precise but is wrong.
ORIGIN
via SPX · GEX dealer walls · 338 strikes · all expiries · 16:00:00 · 237s agoThe WHERE THE WALLS COME FROM panel tells you which book each wall comes from, what time it was read and how many seconds ago. Check it before sizing anything on a level.
BOOK STATUS
Green means no known issues, not confirmed walls.
On SPY, QQQ, NQ, RTY and GOLD the walls are estimated, and the terminal says so.
FRESHNESS
The data’s age is always visible. If it reads hours, you’re looking at the previous session.
A missing bar is shown dashed as NO DATA, never drawn as if it were real.
Where there’s no 0DTE book, the panel stays empty instead of showing another instrument’s flow.
All market data comes from CBOE-licensed distribution.
BEFORE YOU OPEN THE MARKET
Five things to understand. Then Volwick changes how you read the chart.
- 01A long-gamma put wall is an area that can absorb declines, not a bearish signal.
- 02In a green gamma field the edges matter. In a red field a break tends to run.
- 03A green book status means no known issues, not confirmed walls.
- 04An empty price tag means the feed has stopped: don’t use that price as a reference.
- 05No single wall is a trade. The read gets stronger when two independent sources point to the same area.
TECHNICAL QUESTIONS
What you want to know before you open the terminal.
Do I need to know the Greeks to use Volwick?
No. Each layer translates the Greek into behavior you can read: on the maps green dampens and red amplifies; on the walls green and red can slow price down, cyan and magenta can accelerate it. The technical explanations are there to understand why, not to read the chart.
Why does the book update every 5 minutes and the tape doesn’t?
Because they’re two different things. Dealer positioning is a snapshot of the options book, read at regular intervals. The tape is the sequence of executions and arrives as soon as they’re reported.
What happens if today’s book isn’t available yet?
The terminal tells you. The status bar shows whether the book is from the previous session, and every row in the Market Intelligence panel refers to that date until the new book arrives.
How many walls should I watch?
Top 5 is the main read, Top 10 adds context, anything beyond is almost always noise. The selection already weighs proximity to spot, so the tail really is marginal.
Is the Market Intelligence verdict a trading signal?
No. It’s a score of agreement between sources, with conviction and regime. The panel itself drops to NEUTRAL when price moves fast against the score, and it doesn’t predict direction.
Why do I see different prices on ES than on the index?
The walls come from the index book and are mapped onto the ES scale with an estimated basis. The note under the price shows the original strike: it’s the same level on two scales.
Where does the data come from?
From CBOE-licensed market data distribution. For every screen, the source panel shows the book used, the time and the data’s age.
Everyone sees the price. Now you can see much more.
Off-exchange liquidity. Dealer exposure. Positioning. Aggression. 0DTE pressure. Market Intelligence.
All on the same price action. All in one terminal.
One plan · All of Volwick · $89/month