Learn · 10 lessons · about 4 minutes each
Read the option market in ten short lessons
Plain words, one idea per lesson, and a live example from SPY’s last close in each. No account, no course to buy.
1. What is max pain?Max pain is the price at which the options of one expiration would be worth the least in total when they expire — the price where option buyers, all together, would lose the most.2. Gamma exposure (GEX)Gamma exposure (GEX) estimates how much stock options dealers would have to buy or sell to stay hedged for each 1% move in the price.3. The gamma flipThe gamma flip — also called the zero gamma level — is the price at which dealers’ net gamma changes from positive to negative.4. Call wall and put wallThe call wall is the strike with the most call open interest within reach of the price; the put wall is the strike with the most put open interest.5. The expected moveThe expected move is the price range the options market is charging for, up to a given expiration.6. Put/call ratioThe put/call ratio divides put activity by call activity: either volume (contracts traded that day) or open interest (contracts still open).7. IV rank and IV percentileIV rank places today’s implied volatility on a scale from the lowest (0) to the highest (100) of the past year.8. Open interest vs volumeVolume counts the option contracts traded during the day; open interest counts the contracts still open at the end of it.9. How to read an options chainAn options chain lists every call and put of one expiration, strike by strike: calls on the left, puts on the right, strikes in the middle.10. 0DTE options0DTE means zero days to expiration: options traded on the day they expire.
Every term in one long page, with how to read each page of the site: the full guide · today’s numbers: SPY & QQQ report (as of Nov 13, 2026).