The Big Picture — Two Lenses
Sightline shows the market through
two lenses at once. Neither predicts direction on its own — you trade where they line up.
🗺️ THE MAP
Options dealer positioning (GEX / CEX / VEX walls). Where dealers are forced to hedge. Updates every ~5 min. Tells you WHERE price will react.
🌊 THE TAPE
Live order flow (LIQUIDITY TIDE, CVD, CDI, blocks). Who is buying & selling right now. Tells you WHAT is happening at those levels.
Highest-conviction trade = price reaches a wall on the MAP and the TAPE shows the move exhausting there (the engine's absorption read / delta diverging). Map without tape = a guess at timing. Tape without map = a guess at location.
🚀 Quick Start (two one-click setups)
RECOMMENDED — one click loads the single cleanest chart for live trading (an 8-setting combination tuned for the clearest read). Start here if you want one chart.
PRO LAYOUT — one click loads the 3-chart workspace: ES (left, with CDI) · NQ (top-right) · VX (bottom). Start here if you want the full board.
New? Click one, watch it for a few minutes, then read the sections below.
🎛️ The Toolbar, Control by Control
| Control |
What it does |
| Ticker | SPX · ES · MES · NQ · VIX · VX · RTY · SPY · BTC. Options MAP (walls/bias/regime) is on SPX, ES, VIX. LIQUIDITY TIDE + CVD is on the futures + SPY. NQ/RTY/BTC/SPY have no options gamma → tape only. |
| Walls | How many dealer levels to draw (Off → Top 40). Top 5 is the honest read; more is context. Everything past Top 10 is mostly noise. |
| Metric | GEX = gamma (wall locations, all-day primary) · CEX = charm (time-decay pin engine, late day) · ALL = both (GEX solid, CEX dashed) · DEX = delta (coming). Vanna (VEX) shows in ALL mode + the Vanna badge. |
| DTE | Which expirations feed the walls. 0DTE = today only (the intraday pin engine) · Weekly · Monthly · All (out to ~60 DTE). |
| Flow | Block & sweep trade markers on the chart. All / Mega (gold, biggest only) / Off. The min-size box sets the block threshold (futures = contracts, equities = $ premium). |
| Levels | Horizontal zones at strikes with heavy block/sweep volume. Today (this session) / All (~10-day lookback) / Off. |
| CVD | Cumulative Volume Delta pane — running buy-minus-sell from the futures tape (see below). |
| CDI | Cumulative Delta Impact pane — running net dealer-delta from 0DTE options flow (see below). |
| Snapshot | Time-travel through today's 10-min dealer-exposure snapshots (◀ ▶). Auto-refresh pauses while rewound; press LIVE to resume. |
| Split view | 1 / 2 / 3 independent charts side by side. Each pane is its own ticker + settings. |
| LIQUIDITY TIDE | Switches the chart to our proprietary liquidity Tide engine (see below). Futures + SPY only. shows faint candles behind it. |
| 🔔 Alerts | Sound + toast when the engine flags a major liquidity event (white-line signal) on a ticker you've checked. Needs LIQUIDITY TIDE on for that ticker. |
🌊 LIQUIDITY TIDE — the live order-flow ribbon
LIQUIDITY TIDE is our proprietary liquidity engine — a signal set you won't find anywhere else. It hides the candles and replaces them with the Tide: an engine-driven, real-time read of where serious institutional money is moving. Instead of lagging price bars, you watch pressure build as it happens. In LIQUIDITY TIDE the Tide IS the price — the candles go transparent, so the leading edge of the Tide is live price right now. How the engine derives its signals is proprietary; below is what each one means and how to trade it.
⚪ WHITE line — the engine's crown jewel. It prints only when the algorithm identifies a major institutional liquidity event — the rare moments when real size commits to the market. These are the levels that tend to matter most: when a white line appears, respect that price. This is also what fires the 🔔 alert.
🟧 AMBER bar — a rarer, subtler footprint the engine detects (roughly once a day): quiet, patient positioning that doesn't announce itself the way a white line does. Treat it as a confluence nudge at stealthy turning points, not a standalone signal.
🟨 GOLD / AMBER zones — price areas the engine flags as significant institutional activity zones. Watch for reactions when price returns to them.
🖱️ Hover the Tide for the engine's plain-English read at any point: BUYERS / SELLERS IN CONTROL when the move is backed by real conviction, or ⚠ ABSORBED when one side is quietly being soaked up (price rising but sellers hidden, or falling but buyers hidden). Absorption is often the tell that a turn is near.
The engine adapts to each market, so a quiet, sparse Tide on thinner instruments (like BTC or VX) is expected and correct — not a glitch. "Heavy" means heavy for that market.
📈 CVD vs CDI — don't confuse them
CVD · Cumulative Volume Delta
Running buy-minus-sell volume from the futures aggressor tape (who lifted the offer vs hit the bid). Rising = net buying, falling = net selling. CVD diverging from price (price up, CVD down) warns the move isn't backed by real flow → reversal risk.
CDI · Cumulative Delta Impact
Running net dealer-side delta from 0DTE options flow. Positive = bullish customer flow (buying calls / selling puts), negative = bearish. Pick the chain source (SPX monthly vs SPXW weekly/daily) and leg mode (Single-leg = pure directional · Multi-leg = spreads · All). Watch the freshness dot: 🟢<30s.
One-liner: CVD = what futures traders are doing on the tape. CDI = what options traders are doing in the 0DTE chain.
🗺️ The Options Positioning Map (walls & panels)
- Dealer Walls (horizontal lines) — strikes where dealers hold the most exposure and must hedge. Color = call/put × long/short γ (the legend on the chart decodes it). Closer + thicker = stronger reaction expected.
- Now Look Here (top-left) — the strikes nearest spot ranked by |exposure| × proximity: 🛑 resistance · 🛡 support · 🧲 magnet · ⚡ squeeze. Your at-a-glance "what's about to matter."
- Dealer Positioning panel (center) — the synthesized read: the Compass (LONG/SHORT/NEUTRAL × HIGH/MED/LOW directional score), the TRADE SETUP block (the primary actionable call — PIN / RANGE / CEILING TEST / etc.), the Gamma · Charm · Vanna layer badges (all three agreeing = highest confidence), the Charm-Pin Magnet, and REACTION LEVELS (top SELL / BUY zones). "Show details" opens the full wall hierarchy + hedge-by-expiry.
⭐ Gamma Regime — the master switch
Before any trade, answer one question:
near price, are dealers net LONG or net SHORT gamma? It decides whether you
fade levels or
follow breaks.
🟢 POSITIVE γ
Dealers buy dips / sell rips → suppressive, range-bound. FADE the walls. Put walls below price get defended = real support. This is when buying an OTM put wall works.
🔴 NEGATIVE γ
Dealers sell dips / buy rips → accelerative, trending. FOLLOW breaks. Put walls below are air pockets, not support — do NOT buy them; price flushes through.
Two tools compute this for you — don't guess:
- Regime badge (top-left, in the Dealer Walls legend): sums signed dealer γ within ±2% of spot and shows the tilt = net ÷ gross. Tilt > +5% → 🟢 POSITIVE, < −5% → 🔴 NEGATIVE, between → 🟡 MIXED/TRANSITION. The % tells you how one-sided.
- Gamma-flip line (amber dashed on the chart — the "zero-gamma" / volatility-trigger level): where cumulative net γ crosses zero. Above it = positive-γ regime; below = negative-γ.
The rule in one line: buy an OTM put wall
only when the Regime badge is 🟢 POSITIVE γ
and spot is
above the amber gamma-flip line. At/below the flip or in 🔴 negative γ, that same wall is a break-and-go — trade the flush, not the bounce.
Requires signed data (SPX / ES / VIX) — the badge & flip line hide on unsigned tickers. It's a live near-price read, so it flips intraday. Watch it.
🎯 The TOP 5 / TOP 10 Rule
The only levels that matter are the TOP 5 by |γ|. Sometimes TOP 10 for context. Everything outside is noise.
The REACTION LEVELS panel auto-filters to TOP 3 per category and sorts by IMMEDIATE distance — that's your top read. Don't chase strikes that aren't in the top.
⏰ Time-of-Day Playbook
🌅 9:30 – 10:30 ET · GAMMA-LED
Read GAMMA (γ) and VANNA (VEX). Gamma defines the walls; vanna confirms vol-driven hedge bias.
1. Read the SETUP block — that's your day-thesis (PIN / CEILING TEST / etc).
2. Check the Compass — its opening directional read is a strong confirmation. Use it to confirm your thesis, not to initiate blindly.
3. Note the REACTION LEVELS — top SELL/BUY zones are the structural extremes.
4. Note the regime badge (RANGE-BOUND γ+ vs TREND γ-) — γ+ fade extremes, γ- follow breaks.
Ignore charm in the morning. It's not load-bearing until late.
🌞 10:30 – 14:00 ET · STRUCTURE EVOLVES
Watch the SETUP transitions as spot drifts:
• Drift toward ceiling → CEILING TEST (fade the ceiling, target midpoint)
• Drift toward floor → FLOOR TEST (bounce the floor, target midpoint)
• Spot near midpoint → PIN (iron condor between walls)
🌀 PIVOT line appears mid-morning when the short-γ band builds. That's the oscillation anchor inside the wall pair — price tends to dwell there even when walls are 20-30pt away. Use it for take-profit targets.
IMMEDIATE walls reliably contain price. When price reaches one, FADE IT.
🌇 14:30 – 16:00 ET · LATE-DAY (regime-dependent)
Charm magnet is REGIME-DEPENDENT, not a guaranteed last-90-min edge. It works on clean trend days and misfires on chop and news days. Only trade charm when the regime and other signals confirm.
1. The TRADE SETUP block stays the primary signal right through the close — it's the strongest, most reliable read in the stack.
2. Watch the CHARM PIN MAGNET as a CONFLUENCE signal only — when a strong charm concentration lines up with the day's regime.
3. Be careful of compass tier-flips after 14:30. On chop days these are CONTRARIAN — a fresh SHORT·HIGH in the last 30 min often precedes a bounce.
4. 0DTE expiration pull intensifies as theta accelerates — but the pin is only reliable on directionally-clean days, not gap or news days.
📊 What Each Metric Means
| Metric |
When to Read |
What It Tells You |
| GEX (Gamma) |
All day · primary |
Wall locations. Where dealers MUST hedge — most load-bearing signal. |
| VEX (Vanna) |
Morning · confluence |
Vol-driven hedging. Confirms VIX-move expectations early in the session. |
| CEX (Charm) |
Last 90 min · primary |
Time-decay-driven re-hedging. Defines the daily pin. Critical for 0DTE close. |
🎬 SETUP Classifications
| Setup |
When |
Action |
| 🎯 PIN | Walls < 0.5% · spot centered | Iron condor between the walls |
| ⚖️ RANGE | Walls < 1% · γ+ · balanced | Fade extremes, sell premium |
| 🔴 CEILING TEST | Spot drifted near ceiling | Fade ceiling, target midpoint |
| 🟢 FLOOR TEST | Spot drifted near floor | Bounce floor, target midpoint |
| ↔️ WIDE RANGE | Walls 1-2.5% away | Wait for wall touch · or wide IC |
| 🚀 TREND DAY | γ- regime | Follow breaks, DO NOT fade |
| 🌫️ DRIFT | No real walls in band | No trade — wait |
⚠️ Common Mistakes
- Buying a put wall in the wrong regime. The #1 trap. A put wall is support in 🟢 positive γ and an air pocket in 🔴 negative γ. Check the Regime badge + gamma-flip line first, every time.
- Confusing CVD with CDI. CVD = futures tape flow. CDI = 0DTE options flow. They can point opposite ways and both be right — they measure different crowds.
- Trading a white-line signal with no confluence. A white line flags a significant liquidity event, not a guaranteed turn. Pair it with a MAP level or the engine's absorption read before acting.
- Expecting the Tide on SPX / VIX index. There's no tradeable tape for the index — LIQUIDITY TIDE, CVD and blocks are futures + SPY only. Use ES for the tape, SPX for the map.
- Trading strikes outside TOP 5/10. Smaller-|γ| strikes are noise. Don't chase them.
- Fighting the regime. On γ- (TREND) days, mean-revert trades lose. Always check the regime badge before fading.
- Trusting the intraday compass on chop days. The opening call is strong, but mid-session tier flips are unreliable on chop — treat them as noise, not signals.
- Ignoring the 🌀 PIVOT line. When it appears, that's the day's oscillation center. Use it for take-profit targets — not the far walls.
- Trading the immediate-after-open print. The 9:31 print is noisy. Wait until 9:40 for the structural map to settle, then enter.
- Reading PIN as "must be balanced." Spot must be within 30% of midpoint to qualify as PIN. If it drifts, the synthesizer downgrades — listen to it.
Why This Works
These aren't lines painted on a chart — they're a live map of where the largest players are forced to act. Market makers don't choose to hedge; the math makes them. That's why price reacts at the walls, coils around the PIVOT, and accelerates through the empty zones between them.
Read the structure, respect the regime, and let the levels catch the extremes. The strongest reads come when the SETUP block, the regime, and the reaction levels all point the same way — that's your high-conviction confluence. The engine does the heavy lifting; your job is to trade what it shows you.
This is a strategy-recommendation engine, not a direction predictor.
Trade the structure. The walls catch the extremes. The PIVOT catches the interior. The synthesizer tells you which is in play.