VolSignals Profile picture
May 20, 2025 10 tweets 4 min read Read on X
90% of options data sellers get this wrong.

Let's say Esoteria really does sell me 100 Jun 5200/5600 Put Spreads.

We both trade live (no hedge).

We cross in Cboe's Complex Order Book
(sorry MBI no bro on this one)

How does each method capture the trade..?Image
First, naive portfolio construction.

It holds:
» Customers buy puts to hedge
» Customers sell calls to finance hedging

Market makers are therefore:
✓ Short all the Puts in the OI
✓ Long all the Calls in the OI Image
Dealer position, naive construction:

Short 100 Jun 5600 Puts
Short 100 Jun 5200 Puts

Market impact (dynamic) after our trade:
🔸Short Gamma
🔸Shorter Gamma to downside
🔸Charm influence is bullish until between strikes
🔸Market more volatile on selloffs Image
Next, Dealer Directional Open Interest (DDOI).

It holds:
» Customers pay the bid/ask to trade.
» Dealers collect the bid/ask (trade for edge).

Market makers are therefore:
✓ Buying the contracts trading closer to the bid
✓ Selling the contracts trading closer to the ask
Esoteria may be a great trader and correct on stuffing me with this June Put Spread.

But when it trades, I'm more likely to work the order below theo to get a decent execution price.

Dealers will see the Jun 5200 5600 PS trading .15 under on the COB.

So will the data boiz. Image
Dealer position, DDOI:

Long 100 Jun 5600 Puts
Short 100 Jun 5200 Puts

Market impact (dynamic) after our trade:
🔸Long Gamma until ~ 5350-5400
🔸Shorter downside Gamma
🔸Charm bearish > 5600, bullish between 5200-5600 and bearish < 5200
🔸Supportive, then volatile down moves. Image
Finally, Cboe-signed trade data:

It provides:
» Actual net long (short) per contract, by entity type

Market Makers are therefore:
» Long (short) whatever the Cboe says they are.
Dealer position, Cboe-signed data:
(no change)

Market impact (dynamic) after our trade:
(no change)
#3 is the only correct answer.
You're misled by 90% of the data services.

They use methods (1) or (2) and don't know, or don't care, that they're selling you noise.

We're just getting started.

You know the drill.
Retweet the thread & I'll keep going...

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with VolSignals

VolSignals Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @VolSignals

Feb 1
Gamma is a simple concept that starts with knowing that market makers want to make money trading options (not gamble on market direction)

So *delta* is the greek that tells us how much money we make or lose

when the market moves...
(1/n)
If our delta is 100 and the SPX goes up $1, we make 100
if it goes down $1 we lose 100

but options are more complicated because that "delta" changes, too.
Gamma measures how much that changes

If our delta starts out neutral (0 market exposure)...

the market goes up $1

and suddenly our delta is +200

our gamma must be +200 (delta change / spot change)
Read 12 tweets
Feb 1
SPX DEALER GAMMA
[How to understand it and use it in your trading]

Last week, average dealer gamma was +$7.9bn, according to Bank of America

Let's break down what this means, bring the number down to earth- and explore how to use it in your own trading approach >> Image
First, that figure is Notional Gamma

it represents the dollar change in the option portfolio's delta given a 1% move in the index, expressed in notional terms.

A "delta" figure in this context is a way to understand your position's exposure to the underlying >>
Saying that your delta is $7.9bn

is like saying

"I expect the value of my options portfolio to behave as if I owned $7.9bn worth of stock" >>
Read 22 tweets
Jan 21
Long gamma or short gamma?

Most of the time, the market is in a "long gamma" position

Technically, this means that flows are absorbed by the hedging behavior of market makers- stabilizing the market overall and compressing ranges over time.
But compare today to yesterday?

If you're zoned in, this probably "feels" like negative gamma
but guess what...

it's still significantly positive overall.

It's just a major RELATIVE change in regime, comparing yesterday's totals to today's totals.

How do we quantify it?
Read 5 tweets
Dec 30, 2025
Everyone's talking about the iron condor martingale,
let's look at actual trades.

What follows is the series of trades leading up to Captain Condor's Christmas Eve blow-up.

They add context & teach two lessons:

1. The price isn't always "right"
2. Don't sell them blindly Image
First, let's define some things up front:

1. I have no interest in grave-dancing or judging David

2. Nothing I have is confidential. I was a market maker, accustomed to trading and warehousing flows from 0dte to several years.

3. All positioning data is official. No guesses Image
The basic strategy used involved 4 trade sizes deployed in "levels", with some levels occurring on "no-trade" days.

First trade, you sell 1 iron condor.

Without exposing their selection criteria...
strikes chosen often meant the group would collect $2 to sell 5-point wide put spread paired with a 5-point wide call spread, expiring the following day.

For the final series, the group had already "skipped" two days, deploying their first bet quantity at LEVEL 3.

In the following two images, you can see the cumulative customer positions for the SPXW Dec 19th PM contract (net long/short by strike and type).

This data is all exchange sourced and licensed, and the differences highlighted in the images are calculated based on the official position change between 4:00 pm et (cash close) and 4:30 pm et.

Historically, the group placed trades immediately after the close- and finished trading well before 4:30 pm.

The first trade involved selling the Dec 19th 6715 6720 Put Spread with the Dec 19th 6815 6820 Call Spread ~ 4,400 times and collecting $2 to do so (risking a loss of $3)

The fund's trade would be entirely safe if the S&P500 settled within the two short strikes of the condor: 6720 and 6815 - a 95 point range to work with.Image
Image
Read 14 tweets
Dec 18, 2025
SPX MORNING PREP (Thurs Dec 18 2025)
Daily Morning Meeting Slides

KEY LEVELS
as discussed on the 9am call...

UPSIDE TEST / LEVEL TO HOLD = 6790
Lose 6790 and risk a waterslide move back towards 6750-60 before you find any stability.

BALANCE = 6750 (MODERATE)
Opening positions have slight bias to long dealer gamma between 6740 and 6750, which will help flatten out any retracement from the AM spike towards 6790

DOWNSIDE TEST = 6740 >> 6700
Positioning gets very sparse to the downside. If we breakaway from the little bit of stability near 6750, then we look for price to hold above 6740.

IF we lose 6740 to the downside, it's another clean waterslide down to 6720 and a high probability the index will test 6 77777777777 before resolving directionally for the close.Image
VS3D GAMMA PROFILE
Thursday Dec 18 2025

Premarket gamma profile after the CPI release was already reflecting serious risk across the 67XX handle today.

Why?

Combination of 0DTE positions heavily biased towards customer hedges (dealer short options) as well as finding ourselves entrenched among large dealer shorts expiring tomorrow.Image
How much does Gamma matter?

A lot, when you use the right positions to model it correctly.

Here's what price has done so far today (intraday)

1 hour in and we've had multiple $25-35 moves in both directions: Image
Read 8 tweets
Dec 12, 2025
🧵1/19
Just dropped the most important thread of Q4.
You’re not ready for this level of alpha 🔥🚨
2/19
Quick backstory: back in 2023 I was literally shaking and crying in a Wendy’s parking lot when I discovered this one weird trick 📈😭

Doctors hate it.
Market makers fear it.
Your wife's boyfriend is already using it. 😬
3/19
Here’s what real vol managers won't tell you (yet):
Read 19 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(