Gamma
Scan
There are prices on the chart that aren't support and resistance. They're strikes with so much open interest that market makers are forced to defend them.
This screener finds liquid names sitting near one of those strikes, the "pin," and ranks them by how big the wall is relative to how much the stock actually trades. That ratio is your edge: it tells you which magnets are strong enough to matter.
THE 60-SECOND VERSION
Why a strike can move a stock.
Market makers sell you the option and then hedge it in shares. That hedge isn't optional and it isn't discretionary. It's mechanical, and it gets bigger the closer price gets to a heavily-owned strike. Which means the strike itself starts steering the stock.
Acts like a ceiling
Dealers are short those calls. As the stock rallies toward the strike, they must sell shares to stay hedged. Supply appears exactly where you want a breakout, and rallies stall.
RALLY → DEALERS SELL → RESISTANCE
Acts like a floor
Dealers are short those puts. As the stock falls toward the strike, they must buy shares to stay hedged. Demand appears exactly where everyone else is panicking, and dips get bought.
DIP → DEALERS BUY → SUPPORT
And the corollary, which is the real money: when price finally breaks through a big wall, the hedging flips from braking to accelerating. Dealers who were selling into the rally now have to chase it. That's why clean wall breaks run so hard, and why "resistance" on this screener is also your best breakout list.
THE ALPHA
Levels nobody else on the chart can see.
Everybody draws the same trendlines off the same candles. Almost nobody knows where the forced buying and selling actually sits.
Your target isn't "higher." It's $325.00, because that's where 12,400 contracts of forced hedging live. You can size, stop and take profit against an actual number.
A put wall two dollars below your entry is the tightest honest stop you'll ever get. If it fails, you're out small, and the failure itself is information.
One list, two strategies. Pinned names pay you for selling premium; breaking names pay you for buying it. Very few screeners give you a choice like that.
ANNOTATED · THE REAL SCREEN
Read Distance first, then Score.
Distance tells you which play you're in. Score tells you whether the wall is big enough to bother. Everything else is confirmation.
| Ticker | Price | Gamma 4 | Bias | Target 2 | Distance 1 | ATR→Wall | Total OI | ADX | Score 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LULU | $315.20 | +γ 2.8% | BULL ↑C | $32512,400 OI | 3.1% | 1.3 | 21,800 | 27 | 93.5 |
| DE | $412.60 | +γ 0.9% | BEAR ↓P | $4108,900 OI | 0.6% | 0.3 | 15,300 | 22 | 91.0 |
| COIN | $268.80 | −γ 2.4% | BEAR ↓P | $26012,100 OI | 3.3% | 0.7 | 19,400 | 42 | 41.4 |
| F | $11.06 | −γ 6.9% | BULL ↑C | $11.5061,000 OI | 4.0% | 1.3 | 88,300 | 20 | 30.0 |
Illustrative rows built from the real column set and scoring formula. Not live quotes, not recommendations.
Distance: which play you're in
Under ~2% (run the Coiled preset) = pinned and coiled, sell premium or wait for the break. 3-6% = clean runway, buy the move to the magnet. Over 6% the product grays the row out: drifting, ignore it.
LOOK FOR → 3-6% for directional, <2% for premium selling
Target: your actual price objective
The dominant high-OI strike within the zone. The Bias pill reads it for you: BULL ↑C is a call wall above price (upside magnet, then resistance), BEAR ↓P is a put wall below (support). The OI underneath is how much force is behind it.
LOOK FOR → 10,000+ OI on a single strike
Score: wall size vs daily turnover
Wall shares (OI × 100) against the day's volume, maxing out when one strike holds half a session's volume, plus up to +20 for ADX 40 or higher. 61,000 OI on a stock that trades 49M shares a day is noise. 12,400 on one that trades 2.4M is a wall. That's why F scores 30 and LULU scores 93.5.
LOOK FOR → 70+, and ADX above 20
Gamma: the volatility weather
+γ: hedging leans against moves. Ranges hold, pins work, breakouts fail. −γ: hedging leans with moves. Trends extend and gaps run. The % is the distance to the flip level.
LOOK FOR → +γ for pin plays, −γ for breakout plays
THE PLAYBOOK
Three plays. Distance picks which.
Do not freestyle this screener. Every row belongs to exactly one of these three setups, and the Distance column tells you which one.
Ride to the magnet
Clean runway between price and a heavy wall, trend already pointed that way (ADX 20+). Buy a debit call spread with the short leg at the wall. You're paid for exactly the move you expect and nothing you don't.
Get paid for the pin
Price glued to a massive wall in positive gamma with ADX barely above the 20 floor. This is the market telling you it isn't going anywhere before Friday. Sell an iron condor or a credit spread outside the wall cluster and let theta do the work.
Chase the flip
Price closes decisively through the wall on volume. The hedging that was capping the move now has to chase it. This is the highest-payoff, highest-fakeout play. Wait for the close, never the wick.
WORKED EXAMPLE · ILLUSTRATIVE
Play 1, on the LULU row.
$315.20 spot, $325 call wall with 12,400 OI, 3.1% away, ADX 27, positive gamma. Textbook runway setup. Real ticker, illustrative fills.
Pick the row, then check the chart
Score 93.5 with ADX 27 means a real trend into a real wall. Price above EMA21, higher lows for two weeks. The wall is above, so it's a target rather than a lid, for now.
Short leg goes ON the wall
Buy the LULU $315 / $325 call debit spread, 4 DTE, expiring this Friday (the same expiration the scan read), for $3.80. Max value $10.00. You're not paying for anything above $325 because the wall says the move probably stops there. Three spreads = $1,140 risked.
Take it at the wall, not through it
LULU prints $324.10 Thursday morning and stalls, exactly as advertised. The spread marks $8.30. You close all three. The temptation is to hold for max value; the wall is the reason you shouldn't.
Illustrative. Defined risk is the point of this structure. The worst case was a known $1,140, decided before entry.
LULU opens $306 Tuesday on a guidance cut. Price is under your long strike with three days left, the spread marks $1.40, and you're down $720. The setup is gone; the magnet argument died with the gap. Close it. A gamma level that fails on news is not a level to be patient with.
THE FILTER
Green flags, red flags.
✓Take it seriously when…
✕Walk away when…
HOW PEOPLE LOSE MONEY HERE
Three mistakes, in order of cost.
Treating a wall like a guarantee
Gamma is a probability tilt, not a physical law. News, an index rebalance or a single determined buyer goes straight through 40,000 contracts of OI without slowing down.
Forgetting the walls expire
This screener reads the front expiration. Every level on it is deleted at that expiry and rebuilt somewhere else. Traders hold a "gamma trade" for three weeks past the structure that justified it.
Reading Bias as a direction call
BULL ↑C just means the dominant wall is a call wall sitting above price. The product's own tooltip calls it positioning overhead, not a forecast, and plenty of BULL rows spend the week failing at that wall. The separate Directional Bias filter is a trend check (the EMA stack), not a forecast either.
PAIRS WITH
Gamma gives you the level. Not the reason.
This screener is a map of where price is likely to react. You still need somebody's conviction to tell you which way it's heading.
Run it Monday. Mark the levels. Watch what happens Friday.
Take the top five rows, write the target strikes on your chart, and don't trade any of them for one cycle. When you see price stall dead at a number nobody else drew, you'll never unsee it.
Every number, strike, fill and P&L on this page is illustrative and built from the real structure of the screener. Nothing here is a recommendation, a live quote, or a promise of a result. Options carry substantial risk of loss, including total loss of premium paid.