Gamma Alignment: How to Read the Expiration Bucket Breakdown
- Gamma Alignment breaks the total GEX into four buckets: 0DTE, 1DTE, Weekly, Monthly — showing which timeframe is driving the structure.
- Green arrows = each bucket contributing positively (Long Gamma). Red arrows = negative (Short Gamma).
- All buckets same direction = highest conviction. Mixed buckets = structural conflict, expect more volatile behavior.
- 0DTE dominance on expiration days (Mon/Wed/Fri for SPY) is normal and expected.
What is Gamma Alignment?
The total GEX shown in the dashboard is the sum of gamma from all expirations — 0DTE, 1DTE, this week's, this month's, and everything further out. That single total tells you the net direction but not the composition. Gamma Alignment disaggregates the total into four timeframe buckets, showing you not just which direction the regime is, but how unanimously different timeframes agree on that direction.
Each bucket shows its GEX contribution and direction — positive (↑, Long Gamma, bullish) or negative (↓, Short Gamma, bearish) — with an arrow and magnitude indicator. The panel answers the question: are all expirations pulling in the same direction, or are shorter-term and longer-term positioning in conflict?
The Four Expiration Buckets
0DTE — Today's expiring contracts. The highest gamma-per-dollar bucket. Options expiring today have the largest gamma relative to their premium, meaning they create the most dealer hedging pressure per dollar of premium. On SPY, 0DTE trades Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The walls from 0DTE contracts are the strongest intraday pins — but they completely disappear at 4PM when those contracts expire. A market that is strongly pinned by 0DTE today may behave very differently tomorrow if tomorrow is a non-0DTE day for that underlying.
1DTE — Tomorrow's contracts. Overnight positioning. 1DTE contracts are often used by institutions for gap risk management — hedging against overnight moves between today's close and tomorrow's open. When 1DTE GEX is significant, it can influence how the market behaves into the close as institutions establish overnight positions.
Weekly — This week's expiration. The main structural event for most weeks. Weekly expirations drive the week's key levels — Call Wall and Put Wall for the week — and the positioning that gets built into the weekly expiry creates the most durable intraweek structural levels. For SPY, the weekly expiry is typically Friday's standard expiry (separate from 0DTE in some analysis contexts).
Monthly — Third Friday or end-of-month expiry. Institutional, longer-term positioning. Monthly walls are the most durable structural levels — institutional investors have held these positions for weeks, have substantial premium at stake, and will defend their levels aggressively as OPEX approaches. Monthly gamma carries less per-dollar hedging pressure than 0DTE (lower gamma per option dollar), but the sheer volume of monthly OI makes it structurally significant across longer timeframes.
Reading the Direction Arrows
Each bucket displays a directional arrow that summarizes its net GEX contribution:
- ↑ (green, pointing up) — this expiration bucket is net positive GEX (Long Gamma, dampening). Dealers holding positions from this expiry bucket will buy dips and sell rips to stay delta-neutral, adding stabilizing force to that timeframe's influence on the market.
- ↓ (red, pointing down) — net negative GEX (Short Gamma, amplifying). Dealers from this bucket amplify moves — they sell dips and buy rips in the direction of price movement.
Each arrow also shows the magnitude of the bucket's GEX contribution relative to the total. A large 0DTE contribution means today's expiry is dominating the overall GEX structure. In this case, expect strong intraday pinning near 0DTE strikes, but plan for sharp post-4PM moves as that large gamma expires and the remaining structure (weekly, monthly) may be much smaller.
Alignment vs Conflict
Full Long Gamma alignment (all four arrows ↑↑↑↑): The strongest possible pinning environment. Every expiration is net positive GEX — dealers across all timeframes are buying dips and selling rips. The probability of large intraday moves is at its lowest. This is the ideal setup for premium selling strategies — iron condors, short strangles, credit spreads — because the structural dampening applies across all timeframes.
Partial alignment (e.g., ↑↑↑↓): Three buckets agree but one conflicts. The dissenting bucket adds a counterforce. The overall regime is still Long Gamma, but with reduced conviction. The conflicting bucket's expiration represents a group of dealers with opposite hedging flows — they are partially offsetting the dominant direction's dampening effect.
Mixed signals (e.g., 0DTE ↑ but Monthly ↓): The two most significant timeframes are pulling in opposite directions. This creates structural tension with predictable effects:
- More volatile intraday moves than the 0DTE bucket would suggest in isolation, because monthly's short gamma is partially offsetting the 0DTE dampening
- Potential gap risk overnight — the monthly bearish structure persists after 0DTE expires, creating downside risk into the next session
- Higher probability of wall breaks after 0DTE expires, as the monthly short gamma structure reasserts with no 0DTE to offset it
Trading with Gamma Alignment
Gamma Alignment directly informs strategy selection:
Full alignment (all ↑): Premium selling strategies have highest structural probability. Iron condors, short strangles, and credit spreads within the walls are structurally supported. The dampening force applies uniformly across timeframes — the market mechanically resists large moves in either direction.
Mixed alignment with 0DTE dominant: Intraday range strategies may work, but reduce or eliminate overnight exposure. The conflicting longer-dated bucket means the regime support that makes intraday premium selling viable disappears at close. Use same-day premium selling; avoid holding short options overnight if the monthly bucket is bearish.
Monthly Short Gamma with 0DTE Long Gamma: The most common tension configuration. Sell premium intraday within the 0DTE-supported range, but buy protection for overnight positions. The risk profile changes fundamentally at 4PM when the 0DTE pins expire.
Short Gamma in all buckets: Avoid premium selling entirely. The structural conditions favor directional breakouts in both directions — structural mean reversion is absent. Trade directional breakouts with defined risk (debit spreads, long options) rather than collecting premium that the structure may amplify against you.
Analyze multi-timeframe gamma alignment
See exactly how each expiration bucket is contributing to the current regime — and whether they're aligned or in conflict.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is 0DTE dominant on some days but not others?
On SPY, 0DTE contracts exist Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — three days per week. On Tuesday and Thursday, there are no 0DTE SPY contracts, so the 0DTE bucket is absent or minimal in the alignment panel. The Weekly and Monthly buckets dominate on those days, and the overall gamma structure tends to be lower magnitude (less gamma-per-dollar without 0DTE). This is why the market often has larger percentage moves on non-0DTE days — the gamma dampening effect is reduced.
What happens to alignment after 4PM?
0DTE contracts expire at market close (4PM ET). Their gamma contribution disappears entirely, and the remaining structure is purely the 1DTE, Weekly, and Monthly buckets. If 0DTE was the dominant bucket (as it often is on SPY Monday/Wednesday/Friday), the overall GEX magnitude drops significantly at close. This can cause sharp post-4PM moves because the primary pinning force has expired. The market then trades on the remaining structural underpinning until the next session opens and 0DTE positions are established.
Is alignment the same as the regime badge?
Not exactly. The regime badge shows the total net GEX direction — the sum of all buckets. Alignment shows how much each individual timeframe is contributing. Two tickers can both show Long Gamma badges but have completely different alignment profiles: one driven by a massive 0DTE contribution (fragile — regime disappears at 4PM) and one driven by a large Monthly contribution (durable — regime persists overnight and through the week). The alignment panel reveals which regime type you're actually in, even when the badge shows the same label.