Dealer flow is the buying and selling that options market makers (dealers) are forced to do in the underlying to stay hedged against the options they hold. Because dealers must remain delta-neutral, every move in the underlying triggers mechanical hedging trades. In index products like SPX, this hedging flow is large enough to shape intraday price action — creating support, resistance, pinning, and acceleration.

Why does dealer flow move the market?

Dealers are not directional traders — they hedge. When they are short gamma they buy as price rises and sell as price falls (amplifying moves); when they are long gamma they sell rallies and buy dips (dampening moves). With roughly 60% of SPX volume now in 0DTE options, the aggregate hedging flow can be billions of dollars triggered by a small index move, which is why dealer positioning often matters more than fundamentals intraday.

How do you track dealer flow?

Dealer flow is inferred, not reported directly. Traders estimate it from options open interest and gamma exposure (GEX) to locate key hedging levels, and corroborate it with public regulatory data such as FINRA ATS (dark pool) volume and OCC/DTCC clearing data. None of these show dealer direction with certainty, so they are used as context that builds a probabilistic map of where hedging pressure sits.

Dealer Flow Explained

How options market maker hedging — not fundamentals — drives the intraday tape

On any given day, the biggest force moving SPX intraday isn't news or earnings. It's dealer flow — the mechanical buying and selling that options market makers are forced to do to stay hedged. Understanding it is the difference between guessing where price goes and reading the structure that pushes it there.

This is the hub page. Each section below links to a deep dive on one piece of dealer flow.

What "Dealer Flow" Actually Means

When you buy an option, someone sells it to you. That someone is usually a market maker (a "dealer") who has no view on direction — they make money on the spread and want to stay neutral. To stay neutral, they hedge in the underlying. As price moves, their required hedge changes, so they trade. That trading is dealer flow.

The core idea: Dealers don't predict the market — they react to it on a fixed schedule dictated by their options book. Because that reaction is predictable, the levels where it concentrates are predictable too.

The Two Regimes: Gamma

Whether dealer flow calms or amplifies the market depends on the sign of dealer gamma. This single variable defines the day's character.

POSITIVE GAMMA → dealers SELL rallies, BUY dips → volatility suppressed, pinning NEGATIVE GAMMA → dealers BUY rallies, SELL dips → volatility amplified, trending The boundary between them is the Zero Gamma (gamma flip) level.

Positive vs. Negative Gamma Explained — the two volatility regimes and the zero-gamma boundary between them.

Where Dealer Flow Concentrates: Key Levels

Dealer hedging isn't spread evenly — it piles up at strikes with large open interest. Those become the magnetic and reactive levels that show up on the dashboard:

Pinning — price gets stuck at high-gamma strikes. Why SPX pins at certain strikes.
Call Wall / Put Wall — the largest positive and negative gamma strikes, acting as resistance and support.
0DTE flow — same-day options now dominate the hedging. How 0DTE options move SPX.

How Dealer Flow Is Actually Measured

Here's what most explanations skip: dealer flow is inferred, never reported directly. No exchange publishes "dealers bought X." Instead, you triangulate it from public data — options open interest and gamma exposure (GEX), plus regulatory plumbing like FINRA ATS (dark pool) prints and OCC/DTCC clearing data.

This is the part competitors gloss over. Knowing which data sources actually exist — and what each one can and can't tell you — is what separates a real read on dealer positioning from a guess.

Tracking Dealer Flow with FINRA ATS & DTCC Data — the regulatory data behind dealer positioning, and the limits of each source.

See dealer flow levels live

Zero Gamma, Call Wall, Put Wall, and Max Gamma updated in real time

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Explore the Dealer Flow Cluster

SPX Dealer Positioning Today — today's live gamma levels and regime

Gamma Exposure (GEX) Explained — the core metric behind every level

Gamma Squeeze Explained — when dealer flow runs one direction and won't stop

How Do Market Makers Hedge? — the delta/gamma mechanics behind the flow

What Is the Gamma Flip Level? — the price where hedging reverses

Dark Pools Explained — how institutions move size off-exchange

Vanna & Charm Flows — the hedging forces beyond gamma

The OPEX Effect — how monthly expiration resets positioning

Tracking Dealer Flow with FINRA ATS & DTCC Data — where the data actually comes from

Positive vs. Negative Gamma — the two regimes that define each day

Why Does SPX Pin at Certain Strikes? — how hedging creates magnetic levels

0DTE Gamma Effect — why same-day options dominate dealer flow

GEX Methodology — how we calculate the levels