🔗 Chain Snapshot — one day, every strike, every expiry

Chain Snapshot reads the last session's complete option chain in detail: the strike map (gamma, open interest, volume by strike), every level of the day, every expiry, the term structure, the expected-move cone, the price distribution the options imply, the smile and the day's trading.

💡 It is the microscope Chain looks at one session, so nothing on the top part is compared with the past — no z-scores, no verdicts. For "is this unusual?" use Volatility, Greeks & flow or Bull Bear. Three cards do look back: what each horizon book leans and the cascade by expiry (right under the read), and option momentum (below the smile).

New words? Glossary. The top strip works as on every ticker page. This page is always on the last usable session — there is no "as of" date box.

Tiles Strike map Ladder & the read Horizon books & cascade Term & cone Implied distribution Smile & skew Momentum Today's tape Every expiry Routine

The tiles

Tile	How to read it
Dealer gamma	GEX: + long gamma, dampening · − short gamma, amplifying — with the flip and where the price sits.
Book delta (DEX)	Total delta held, and the δ flip.
Vanna · charm	+ vanna: falling IV makes dealers buy.
Open interest	Total, put/call, put share, front share, share within 45 days.
Volume · Premium	What traded, put/call volume, turnover, and the money in calls and puts.
ATM IV 30d	With 10 / 60 / 90 day IV and the 90−30 slope.
25Δ skew 30d	Put minus call IV. + = puts bid.
Expected move	±1σ over 30 days and to the front expiry.
Max pain	Front and monthly, with the distance from the price.
Jump priced	A near expiry whose IV carries more variance than the smooth curve explains — usually earnings. "±6.2 % into Oct-24" = the market prices a ±6.2 % jump. "none" = no event priced.

🎓 Pro tipThe Jump priced tile is the quickest look at the market's earnings move. Compare it with the stock's usual report-day move (Volatility → report dates) to judge whether that expiry is expensive or cheap for the event.

The strike map

Control	What it does
Show	Net dealer gamma by strike (green +, red −) · open interest (calls up, puts down) · volume · volume against open interest (today's trading over the standing book).
Expiries	All (0DTE excluded), a time bucket, the focus expiry, or one expiry.
Window	Strikes within ±5 % … ±50 % of the price.

Vertical marks: price (white) · call / put wall (green / red) · γ flip (amber) · front max pain (purple) · ±1σ to the front expiry (cyan dashed).

You see	Meaning
tall green gamma bars around the price	Strong dealer long gamma near the price: tends to pin.
red gamma bars below the price	A short-gamma zone: a drop into it can accelerate.
a huge single OI bar	A wall. Is it inside the ±1σ marks (reachable) or outside?
volume bars taller than OI bars at a strike	New positions opened today at that strike.

Ladder and "the read"

Ladder lists every level of the day (walls, flips, max pain, σ bands…) sorted by price with its % distance. The read is plain descriptive sentences, each naming the number it came from — no scores, no verdicts.

Horizon books and the gamma-flip cascade

Right under the read. The four expiry books come first, then the flips fold out to each expiry.

What each horizon book leans, today

The four expiry books (0–14 · 15–45 · 46–180 · 181d+), each against its own prior sessions.

⚡ Gamma-flip cascade by expiry

Folds the expiries in one by one — out to each date — and shows the GEX flip and the DEX flip at each stop. Markers G / D: γ = price vs the GEX flip, δ = price vs the DEX flip — both green = aligned and stable, both red, or split amber; ⊗ = the two flips sit within a hair of each other (one reinforced pivot). The last point is the whole book.

Term structure and the expected-move cone

Term structure: ATM IV per expiry with the 25Δ legs and the forward vol. Rising = calm; a spike at one expiry = an event.

Expected-move cone: ±1σ (shaded) and ±2σ at each expiry, the straddle breakeven, and the day's levels as horizontal lines — so you see which walls sit inside the cone at which horizon.

🎓 Pro tipA wall that sits outside ±1σ at your expiry is a comfortable short strike; one inside it will probably be tested. The cone shows this for every expiry at once — a fast way to pick the expiry for a credit spread at a wall.

Implied distribution (focus expiry)

The probability distribution of the price at expiry that the option prices imply (the Breeden–Litzenberger method, fitted to the smile) — including the fat tails and skew a bell curve misses.

Shape	Meaning
long left tail	A bigger chance of a sharp fall than a sharp rise (normal for stocks).
two humps	Two outcomes priced — around earnings or a binary event.
narrow and tall	A small move is expected.

⚠ Look at the grade firstThe card grades how trustworthy the fit is (probabilities add to 1, the mean matches the forward, enough quotes). If the grade is poor, do not lean on the shape.

Smile and skew by expiry

Smile: IV across strikes for the focus expiry — usually higher on the put side (left). 25Δ skew by expiry: risk reversal (put IV − call IV; + = puts bid) and butterfly (average wing IV − ATM; high = fat tails priced). Judge an expiry against this chain's own median, not against zero.

Option momentum

Option momentum — the book's own rate of change

Eighteen lines of the book, their change over 1 · 5 · 10 · 20 sessions, a z, and the share that is "only price in another unit" (ρ). Every arrow is a statement about the option market, never about price: "more call volume" is a fact about what traded; turning it into "bullish" is a leap the page refuses to make.

Today's tape — volume against the standing book

Item	How to read it
Traded	Contracts, put/call volume, premium in calls and puts.
Volume-weighted strike	Where trading concentrated against the price. Well above = upside strikes active.
New positioning	Strikes where today's volume exceeded their open interest: likely new positions. "none" = trading inside the existing book.

Rows with an amber edge traded more than their own open interest (50 contracts or more). Premium = mid × volume × 100, counting both sides of every trade.

⚠ Volume does not say who bought and who soldA big put volume can be buying protection or selling puts for income. Tomorrow's change in open interest tells you whether positions were opened or closed.

Every expiry on the board

The reference table, at the end of the page. Click a row to make it the focus expiry for the distribution and the smile above.

Column	How to read it
OI · P/C · volume · premium	Size and activity of that expiry.
GEX · max pain	Dealer gamma and the pain strike of that expiry.
ATM IV	Its implied vol.
fwd IV	Forward vol for the window between the previous expiry and this one. A jump here marks an event far more clearly than ATM IV.
straddle · BE ±%	The at-the-money straddle price and its breakeven width as % of the price: the move options price to that date.
25Δ RR	Put IV minus call IV. + puts bid, − calls bid.
spread	At-the-money bid/ask as % of mid. Amber above 10 %: expensive to trade.
quotes	Usable out-of-the-money quotes. Amber under 6: too few for a reliable distribution.

A routine that works

Tiles: dealer gamma, expected move, jump priced.
Strike map on net gamma, then open interest: where are the pins and walls against the ±1σ marks?
Expiries: find events in fwd IV; check spread and quotes for the expiry you would trade.
Cone: which walls sit inside ±1σ at that expiry?
Focus that expiry: look at the distribution and the smile.
Tape: any new positioning?