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Edition · Thursday, August 20, 2026·Archived · 10d ago · historical·20 Aug 2026 12:25 UTC

ESNEGATIVE

Spot7671.00Futures7689.00Basis+18.00SessionPREMARKET
Dealer Regime
NEG_GAMMA_INTO_OPEX_MASS_BELOW_SPOT
NetGEX -$1.4KRisk ELEVATED
Opening Type
OPEN DRIVE DN
Conf 55%Day TRENDGAP DN
Share Card
Accuracy Ledger1 logged · 1 scored0% hit rateFull ledger ↓
Desk Thesis · 2026-08-20

Short-dated negative gamma into monthly OPEX with the entire expiring mass below spot: the Aug-21 put wall at 7640 index (6,505 OI, -$1.308B) is the dominant GEX node of the whole term structure and has not moved all morning, while the 0DTE put wall slid down to 7650 and the 21DTE gamma neutral dropped 27 points to 7619.54 - a rising-yield tape is now supplying the driver and aggregate rho is -127,351 and deepening.

ES broke straight through the 7712-7722 pivot without retesting it, so the planned retest short is gone; with the 0DTE put wall migrated down to 7650 index (4,749 OI) and the Aug-21 OPEX put wall fixed at 7640 (6,505 OI), the magnet is now only 31 points below spot - hold existing shorts to 7668/7658 ES with stops at 7706 ES, do not initiate new shorts into the shelf, and treat ES 7658-7668 as a no-trade band.

Level Map

Confluence-ranked · distances from spot 7671.00
ES
SPX
Level
Action · Distance
ES7768.00
SPX7750.00
CALL WALLAug-21 OPEX call wall
WATCH+1.03% · conf 3
ES7756.33
SPX7738.33
CALL WALLSPY 770 call wall projection
WATCH+0.88% · conf 2
ES7728.53
SPX7710.53
GAMMA FLIP0DTE Gamma Neutral (native, clean)
WATCH+0.51% · conf 3
ES7728.00
SPX7710.00
CALL WALL0DTE call wall
WATCH+0.51% · conf 2
ES7722.43
SPX7704.43
DOMINANT ANCHORCEX charm pressure centroid (native)
WATCH+0.43% · conf 2
ES7718.00
SPX7700.00
PUT FLOOR7DTE put wall
WATCH+0.38% · conf 2
ES7712.08
SPX7694.08
DOMINANT ANCHORDominant cross-rail cluster ES:put:7715
WATCH+0.30% · conf 3
ES7706.08
SPX7688.08
PUT FLOORSPY Aug-21 OPEX put wall projection
WATCH+0.22% · conf 3
SPOT
ES7689.00
SPX7671.00
Range 7618.90–7759.10
ES7668.00
SPX7650.00
PUT FLOOR0DTE put wall (migrated down)
WATCH-0.27% · conf 3
ES7658.00
SPX7640.00
PUT FLOORAug-21 OPEX put wall - THE MAGNET
WATCH-0.40% · conf 3
ES7637.54
SPX7619.54
STRUCTURAL FLOOR21DTE Gamma Neutral (native, clean)
WATCH-0.67% · conf 2
ES7618.00
SPX7600.00
PUT FLOOR6DTE put wall
WATCH-0.92% · conf 1

Level Reaction

Intraday tape · ES · 2026-08-20
Loading session tape…

Greek Pressure

Dealer directional forces · next session
GAMMA
DOWN · 82

Net GEX -$1.394B and negative at every confirmed tenor from 0 to 7. Spot below the 0DTE gamma neutral means dealer hedging amplifies rather than damps a downside push, all the way to the OPEX shelf.

CHARM
DOWN · 88

netCharmDaily +4,561,090, up 55% in twenty minutes. The charm drift card reads DEGRADED but explicitly directional: horizon delta change to the governed cash close is downward, projectedDeltaToClose -147,817,758. Today's centroid sits at 7704 index, tomorrow's SPY-weighted centroid 60 points lower.

VOMMA
UP · 70

Large positive vomma with vommaRegime positiveHigh. Amplifies vol moves - an IV expansion feeds on itself. Paired with front-week VIX negative gamma this is the mechanism by which a modest push becomes disorderly.

VANNA
NEUTRAL · 5

REFUSED as a level rail: all 16 vexLevels carry vhi=0 and vannaNeutral 0DTE is refused with eligibilityCoverageBelowMinimum. The aggregate crossed zero twice in eighteen minutes against a netVega of 6.03M - noise. No ES vanna directional claim is made, and this is why confidence is capped at 62.

COLOR
UP · 45

Gamma decay building into the expiry, consistent with the OPEX pin scenario.

SPEED
NEUTRAL · 5

Single-strike level property at the gamma-neutral strike, NOT an aggregate and not compared to any net. Speed is non-zero on only about 1% of contracts, so this carries a coverage caveat and is not read as a live third-order rail.

ZOMMA
DOWN · 20

Single-strike level property at the gamma-neutral strike, not an aggregate. Negative - locally destabilising gamma-versus-vol, consistent with the negative-gamma regime. Low weight.

ULTIMA
UP · 30

Positive on the ES family but negative on the NQ family (-5,173,388). Flagged as an unresolved cross-family inconsistency rather than read as a signal.

Higher-Order

Second + third-order greeks
color
LATENT
100275.870

speed
LATENT
11882.590

vomma
LATENT
39854337.000

zomma
LATENT
-0.187

IV Intelligence

Quadrant · skew · term structure
Regime Quadrant
Not captured
ATM IVUnavailable
IV Percentile14
Skew Pctile84
Skew ShapeSMIRK
Expected Daily MoveNot captured
Term Structure
Not captured
Term structure not captured for this sessionExpected: ivRegime.termStructure as array of IV fractions per tenor (front/mid/back).

Cross-Asset Confirmation / Component Confluence

CONFIRMING · COMPLETE
4 native levels received secondary cross-asset confirmation. Strongest alignment sits around 7712.08 via ETF ratio levels and component confluence zones.

Native futures levels stay primary. Use ETF conversions as corroboration and component zones as provisional structure only, especially when the overlay is partial or quality flags are present.

Secondary confirmation only. Native index and MCP levels remain primary. MCP-native individual stock Greek scans are unavailable; if component confluence is attached it was produced by the system-level Polygon overlay path and remains opt-in, secondary, and provisional rather than an executable native futures level. Component weights are static/proxy unless explicitly holdings-confirmed, beta may be defaulted to 1.0, and TOP_10 lists should not be treated as quantitatively ranked until liquidity plus holdings/beta calibration are implemented.

Native Levels Confirmed

4 matched levels
DOMINANT ANCHOR
75 conf
7712.08
Dominant cross-rail cluster ES:put:7715

Dominant cross-rail cluster ES:put:7715 is secondarily confirmed by SPY ratio level near 7718.39 and 3-stock zone 7686.52-7704.68.

ETF 2COMP 2
PUT FLOOR
59 conf
7718.00
7DTE put wall

7DTE put wall is secondarily confirmed by SPY ratio level near 7718.39 and 2-stock zone 7714.80-7726.34.

ETF 2COMP 2
DOMINANT ANCHOR
59 conf
7722.43
CEX charm pressure centroid (native)

CEX charm pressure centroid (native) is secondarily confirmed by SPY ratio level near 7718.39 and 2-stock zone 7714.80-7726.34.

ETF 2COMP 2
STRUCTURAL FLOOR
21 conf
7637.54
21DTE Gamma Neutral (native, clean)

21DTE Gamma Neutral (native, clean) is secondarily confirmed by 3-stock zone 7637.92-7649.46.

COMP 2

ETF Confirmation Levels

SPY ratio-converted
SPY
0.85
7748.39
CALL_WALL · DTE 0

SPY ratio-converted CALL_WALL at 7748.39 (DTE 0). Secondary confirmation only.

SPY
0.85
7598.42
PUT_WALL · DTE 0

SPY ratio-converted PUT_WALL at 7598.42 (DTE 0). Secondary confirmation only.

SPY
0.85
7598.42
PUT_SUPPORT · DTE 0

SPY ratio-converted PUT_SUPPORT at 7598.42 (DTE 0). Secondary confirmation only.

SPY
0.85
7598.42
PUT_FLOOR · DTE 0

SPY ratio-converted PUT_FLOOR at 7598.42 (DTE 0). Secondary confirmation only.

Component Confluence Zones

Provisional only
CALL_WALL
0.47
7686.52 - 7704.68
center 7696.70 · 3 names · DTE 8

3-stock call-side confluence cluster centered 7696.70. Provisional component estimate, not a native executable level.

PUT_SUPPORT
0.47
7637.92 - 7649.46
center 7643.69 · 3 names · DTE 8

3-stock put-support confluence cluster centered 7643.69. Provisional component estimate, not a native executable level.

CALL_WALL
0.40
7682.55 - 7701.10
center 7691.79 · 13 names · DTE 1

13-stock call-side confluence cluster centered 7691.79. Provisional component estimate, not a native executable level.

PUT_SUPPORT
0.39
7671.63 - 7693.64
center 7684.15 · 15 names · DTE 1

15-stock put-support confluence cluster centered 7684.15. Provisional component estimate, not a native executable level.

Cautions

Quality-aware language
  • Component zones rely on static/proxy weights rather than holdings-confirmed weights and stay secondary to native futures levels.
  • At least one component projection defaulted beta to 1.0, so component-zone placement is approximate.
  • Source coverage was degraded by quote gaps or pagination truncation, so missing confirmations are not a signal by themselves.
  • One or more component zones were built from a small contributor set and should be treated as provisional only.
  • MCP-native individual stock Greek scans are unavailable. If component zones are attached, they come from the system-level Polygon overlay path and remain secondary/provisional to native index and MCP levels.

Overlay Diagnostics

Runtime 44s
  • LIGHTER_SELECTION_PATH: using static seed order for this overlay run to avoid a duplicate liquidity pre-scan before component resolution.
  • ETF_SOURCE: contracts:PAGINATION_REQUIRED
  • ETF_SOURCE: contracts:PAGINATION_TRUNCATED
  • COMPONENT_SOURCE: Selected universe uses STATIC_SEED_FALLBACK and HOLDINGS_STALE until issuer/provider holdings adapters exist.
  • COMPONENT_SOURCE: Using static seed order for this run to avoid a duplicate liquidity pre-scan before component source resolution.

LBF Status

Look-Below-And-Fail · conditions armed
0
NOT ARMED · 0/3 conditions
0
Tension Index

Accuracy Log

Outcomes · last 1 levels scored
DateSymbolLevelPredictedOutcomeNotes
2026-04-20ESNEG GEX TRIGGER@ 7152.00SHORT_BELOWABSORBEDOpened 7148.25 below the 7152 trigger and sold to 7121.50, but downside follow-through stalled well above 7102. First 30-minute close was 7156.75 and session closed 7152.00, so bearish impulse fired but was absorbed and reclaimed by end of day.
Total Logged1
Scored1
Hit Rate0%
Best Level Type

Archive

Recent editions
2026-08-28 · NQ
The Nasdaq is net positive on 0DTE gamma but is trading just BELOW its 0DTE flip on the rail that actually has depth, which puts it in a shallow negative-gamma pocket rather than in a damped one. The ETF rail carries 240,914 contracts within 1.5 percent of spot against the native book's 7,483 - a 32 to 1 ratio - and it places the cumulative crossing at 29,626-29,667 index, above spot, while the thin native rail places it below. Being under the flip does not contradict an upward lean, it amplifies it: impulses are not damped here, so a push accelerates into the nodes overhead rather than being sold into. Vanna agrees emphatically - all four native antimagnets sit in a band that contains spot while all four magnets sit above it, the strongest repulsion being -20,028 essentially on price. The counterweight is charm, which flipped negative early and stayed there, a mild drag that the S&P does not have.
OPEN AUCTION · NORMAL
BULLISHPOSITIVE
2026-08-28 · ES
The S&P is in strongly positive gamma with spot 15 points above a Gamma Neutral that has been rising all morning, and the book is asymmetric in a way that supports both halves of a grind-up-with-a-trapdoor read: the entire 0DTE put wing sits at ONE strike, 7700 carrying -$2,890M on 12,021 contracts, while call gamma runs continuously across eleven strikes from 7745 to 7800 with no single dominant obstacle - so the downside is a cliff at one level and the upside is a ramp. Vanna says the same thing from a different direction, with a -23,142 antimagnet at 7717.66 and a +24,764 magnet at 7767.77 straddling spot. Charm is positive and building 28.7 percent this morning. The path of least resistance is up toward the 7765-7775 complex where the dominant gamma node, the vanna magnet and the cumulative crossing all coincide.
OPEN AUCTION · NORMAL
BULLISHPOSITIVE
2026-08-27 · NQ
NDX is pinned on the largest gamma node in its own book - the native 29,510 strike at +$526M and the ETF 718 strike at +$295.7M land seven points apart on separately measured chains, joined by a STRONG allCredible cluster at percentile 0.948 - inside a strongly positive-gamma regime where dealer hedging damps every impulse, and since the open the vanna channel has inverted at spot from antimagnet to magnet so that it now reinforces the pin rather than fighting it.
OPEN AUCTION · TREND
NEUTRALPOSITIVE
2026-08-27 · NQ
NDX has cleared into damped positive gamma with spot sitting at the top of its 29,326 to 29,483 flip band, so unlike the S&P it absorbs impulses rather than amplifying them - but price is resting directly on the 0DTE vanna antimagnet at QQQ 717 with the dominant magnet of the whole board 123 points above at QQQ 720, so it is unlikely to sit still, and the 718 call wall at NQ 29,573 is the gate that decides which way it goes.
OPEN AUCTION · TREND
NEUTRALPOSITIVE
2026-08-27 · ES
SPX is sitting on its 0DTE gamma flip inside a negative-gamma pocket running from 7647 to 7736, so intraday moves amplify rather than damp until price reaches an edge - and the upper edge is guarded by the largest one-sided call-gamma block on either chain, roughly +$8.0B from 7740 to 7820 with zero put open interest above 7755.
OPEN AUCTION · TREND
NEUTRALPOSITIVE
2026-08-26 · RTY
RUT is the un-pinned index. It carries roughly 1.6 percent of SPX's dealer gamma (+$65M against +$4,010M) while pricing 171 percent of its implied volatility (21.90 percent against 12.82), which works out to an expected move of 0.64 percent against SPX's 0.40. Measured against a VIX-implied daily of 0.986 percent, RUT is priced at 65 percent of the 30-day equivalent where SPX is at 41 - the front-day compression dominating the large-cap complex this week is much weaker in small caps, and RUT retained 80 percent of its Tuesday-close front-day variance overnight against the SPX complex's 64 percent. The structure is balanced and the discriminator is unusually well defined despite a thin chain and a broken vendor IV field: the cumulative-GEX crossing has printed inside a 0.20 point band across fourteen polls and five hours, with spot 2 points above it. The ceiling is the STRONG 0.797 cluster at RUT 3017 where IWM's call wall sits on all three listed expiries; the floor is RUT 2997-3000, the only price both rails independently mark.
OPEN AUCTION · NORMAL
NEUTRALPOSITIVE
2026-08-26 · NQ
NQ is structurally coiled with a genuine upside pull that is capped about 150 points above spot. Spot sits INSIDE a contiguous vanna antimagnet band running NQ 29,181 to 29,269, with a contiguous magnet band NQ 29,328 to 29,416 immediately above and nothing between them, so vanna is repelling price from where it is and attracting it higher. Two independent pieces of evidence support that lean: the NQ family is call-skewed into the event, with NDX 0DTE ATM calls at 16.4 against puts at 14.9 and QQQ at 21.1 against 16.2, a REVERSE_SMIRK on both, while the ES family is put-skewed; and QQQ 0DTE positive gamma built 12x through the pre-market. Against it, the NQ family is the fragile one - underperforming ES by 16 basis points overnight, charm negative on both native and ETF books where SPX is positive, spot 47 points BELOW its own Gamma Neutral where SPX is 2 points above, and its call wall and flip both migrating DOWN while the ES flip migrated UP. The resolution is that this is a two-sided, discriminator-dependent session rather than a directional one.
OPEN AUCTION · NORMAL
NEUTRALPOSITIVE
2026-08-26 · ES
ES is in a positive and building 0DTE gamma regime with spot two points above the most corroborated level in the complex - SPX 0DTE Gamma Neutral at 7670.57 / ES 7685.1, which is also the STRONG cross-rail cluster at the 0.949 GEX percentile. Positive gamma more than doubled through the pre-market while the put wall and the flip both migrated up and the call wall never moved, a constructive drift on every component. The 0DTE straddle implies only plus or minus 31 ES points, 41 percent of the VIX-implied daily, so the base case is a small, dampened, range-bound session. The structural asymmetry is in time rather than price: 0DTE is the only positive-gamma tenor in the whole ES complex and its dampening expires at today's close, into a negative-gamma 1DTE book that prices NVDA and whose largest negative node sits overhead at SPX 7715.
OPEN AUCTION · NORMAL
BULLISHPOSITIVE
2026-08-25 · NQ
NDXP is live for the first time today and the book is unambiguously positive gamma at +$1.42B with the entire gamma shelf stacked above spot at NQ 29440-29496, while session VWAP at 29331-29337 sits precisely on the QQQ 712 node and the 0.998-percentile cluster - so a reversion into 29326-29337 followed by extension into the overhead shelf is the mechanically favoured path, with the caveat that long-gamma dealers decelerate the extension rather than accelerating it.
OPEN DRIVE UP · NORMAL
BULLISHPOSITIVE
OpenGamma Intelligence · Schema v1.1.0This brief is not investment advice.