Gamma Flip

Start from the gamma exposure (GEX) profile: for every strike in the chain, the gamma of the open contracts is signed by the dealer-positioning convention — call gamma positive, put gamma negative — weighted by settled open interest, and summed. That gives net dealer gamma at today's spot. But gamma is not a fixed property of a contract; it depends on where spot is. Reprice the same chain at a ladder of hypothetical spot prices and the net figure moves — and at one price it crosses zero. That crossing is the gamma flip.

A real chain can cross zero more than once. The convention Profit Builders publishes on its methodology page is to show the crossing nearest spot, because that is the boundary of the regime price is actually trading in: the dampening side or the amplifying side.

The flip is not static. Its open-interest base resets once a day, when the OCC settles the prior session's positions. Inside the session it drifts as spot moves, because every contract's gamma is spot-dependent — spot approaching the flip raises the gamma of the strikes around it and can pull the flip itself closer.

• A regime check before anything elseSpot above the flip means dealers are net long gamma and their hedging sells rallies and buys dips — the market's shock absorber is engaged. Spot below it means hedging chases moves instead of resisting them. Many traders simply note which side of the flip SPY opens on and let that choose between mean-reversion tactics and momentum tactics for the day.
• Distance as a fragility gaugeSpot sitting a fraction of a percent from the flip is a fragile setup: a small push changes the hedging regime itself. Spot far from the flip means the current regime is entrenched and a regime change needs a real catalyst, not noise.
• A level to plan around, not a signal by itselfThe flip frames what kind of day a catalyst will produce — the same headline lands differently above the flip than below it. Traders combine it with the walls and with live flow rather than trading the line in isolation.

• It is not support or resistance in the chart-pattern sense. Nothing about the flip attracts price toward it or repels price from it; it marks where the character of hedging flow changes.
• It is not a prediction that spot will cross it, bounce off it, or do anything at all. Earnings, macro prints, and forced flows cross flips routinely.
• It is not observed dealer data. It is an estimate built from public chain data under a stated sign convention, which is why two honest vendors can publish different flip levels for the same symbol on the same morning.

SPY's gamma flip is the most watched of the 194 symbols Profit Builders tracks, because index hedging concentrates there: the flip is effectively the broad market's regime line for the day. When SPY trades just above its flip into a scheduled catalyst, the dampening regime is doing quiet work in the background — moves stall, ranges hold. When SPY loses the flip, the same catalyst meets hedging that adds to the move instead of absorbing it.

Today's actual SPY flip — computed from the current settled open-interest base, which is date-stamped on the page — is on the SPY gamma page, next to its call wall and put wall.

See today's SPY gamma levels →