The idea

Same-day (0DTE) options are where most index speculation happens. Price tends to follow where that speculation is aimed. This page shows where it is aimed, five minutes at a time.

Call Center and Put Center

Each 5 minutes we take the same-day call contracts by strike and find the strike where they balance, like the balance point of a see-saw. That is the Call Center (green). The same for puts is the Put Center (red). Far strikes move the balance more than near ones, so a burst of far out-of-the-money buying shows up fast.

Buyers (the default) counts only contracts customers bought, which is new speculation. All Volume adds contracts sold and those at mid. Spreads and trades tied to stock are left out either way: a big condor is four strikes of volume that say nothing about direction.

Price usually trades between the two centers. A price outside them is unusual and is flagged.

Trend lines and the Settle Zone

From around midday on, a straight trend line runs through each center and is carried to the close (dashed). Where the two lines land, plus room for how far off such a forecast can be, is the Settle Zone: the area the session's speculation points at for the close. If the two lines meet before the close, the Settle Zone is where they meet. Early in the afternoon the zone is wider, because there is more time left for price to move; it narrows as the close nears.

Before there is enough data for that, the lines use the whole morning, run only over the data so far, and the read is marked early. There is no Settle Zone yet: a morning trend carried all the way to the close lands far from anything real. Early reads change a lot; crossings in the first hour mean little.

Patterns

• Trending Up / Trending Down: both centers move the same way. Trade with it.
• Grind Higher: puts move up while calls stay: a rally on fear unwinding, with limited upside.
• Slow Bleed: calls fall while puts stay: interest is fading.
• Calls Reaching / Floor Giving Way: one side moves, the other holds: a lean, not a trend.
• Squeeze to Pin: the lines close on each other: the best setup for selling premium around the Settle Zone.
• Steady Range: both centers hold: premium outside them is favored.
• Two-Way Expansion: calls reach up and puts reach down at once: a big move is being priced. Avoid short premium.

Strike Map

Same-day contracts by strike, calls above the line and puts below. Today shows the whole session so far: the strikes where volume has piled up all day, often the ones price is drawn to into the close. Latest 5 min shows what is being bought right now.

The dashed green and red lines are the current Call Center and Put Center, the white line is price. A tall, narrow peak is conviction at one strike; a flat spread is indecision or positions being closed.

Scorecard

Every finished session is graded: what the page said at 12:30 ET, 13:30 ET and 14:30 ET, whether the close landed in the Settle Zone, and whether a trending pattern got the direction right. The hit rates build up from the day the map started recording.

Good to know

• Option prints do not say whether a trade opened or closed a position, and a single big trade can move a center for one slice. Read the trend, not one point.
• News and the last half hour before expiry can override any reading.
• This is a read of option activity, not advice. Size every trade for being wrong.