# Gamma on Futures

> How SPX and NDX dealer gamma is projected onto ES and NQ - Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, and Gamma Flip on your futures chart, and how to trade them.

Source: https://tradeecho.com/docs/features/futures/gamma-on-futures (updated 2026-09-27)

This is the layer no other futures chart has. If you already use Dealer Edge, you know the levels; this page explains how they land on the Echo Map and what changes when you trade them on futures.

## Why Index Gamma Moves ES

The S&P 500 options complex (SPX) is enormous relative to everything else. When dealers are short or long gamma, their mechanical hedging happens in the most liquid instrument available - **ES futures**. That means SPX dealer positioning does not just *describe* the index; it *causes* flows in the exact contract you are trading. NQ inherits the same mechanics from NDX.

The Echo Map takes the live SPX/NDX gamma levels (the same engine behind Dealer Edge) and projects each one onto the futures price axis using the **basis** - the live spread between the future and its index. The result: Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, and Flip drawn at the exact ES/NQ prices where they bite.

## The Four Amber Lines

All gamma levels render in a single amber so they read as one family. Line style tells them apart:

| Level | Line | What dealers do there | How to trade it |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Call Wall** | solid, above price | Sell into strength (hedging short calls) | Resistance. First test usually holds; fade with CVD divergence |
| **Put Wall** | solid, below price | Buy into weakness | Support. Same logic inverted |
| **Anchor** | strongest solid line | The largest gamma concentration - a magnet | Rotation target on balanced days; expect price to gravitate here into the close on pin days |
| **Gamma Flip** | dashed | Above: dealers dampen moves. Below: they amplify them | The regime boundary. Losing it with flow confirmation = stop fading, expect range expansion |

The thesis bar above the map reads the regime for you ("High gamma - pin / mean-revert" vs trending) and the Trade Plan bakes these levels into its scenarios.

## What's Different vs Dealer Edge

- **Same levels, tradeable axis.** Dealer Edge shows you SPX 6,500; the Echo Map shows you the ES price that corresponds to it right now. No mental basis math at 9:31.
- **24x5 context.** Futures trade through the night; the gamma layer stays projected so you can see overnight price interacting with yesterday's walls before the cash open.
- **Confluence with volume.** A Call Wall that lands inside a high-volume node from the profile is a stronger level than either signal alone. The Trade Plan's key levels score this confluence for you, and the right panel's [Key Levels](https://tradeecho.com/docs/features/futures/trade-plan-and-replay#right-panel) card lists the gamma walls next to VWAP, overnight, prior day and profile levels with their distance from price.

## Which Contracts Get Gamma

Only contracts with an equity-index options complex behind them: **ES, MES** (SPX), **NQ, MNQ** (NDX), **RTY** (RUT), **YM** (DJI). For **CL, GC, ZN** there is no index chain to project, so the Echo Map runs value terrain + pressure only and tells you so in the right rail.

## A Session Playbook

1. **Pre-open**: note where overnight price sits relative to the Flip and the Anchor. Above both = dealers dampen dips; buy-the-dip regime until proven otherwise.
2. **First test of a wall**: watch the CVD strip. Divergence into the Call Wall is the cleanest fade entry the map produces.
3. **Midday**: on high-gamma days, price oscillates between value-area edges and the Anchor. Rotation trades, small targets.
4. **Power hour on pin days**: the Anchor is where price wants to settle. Late-day moves *away* from a strong Anchor without flow behind them tend to retrace.

One honest caveat: gamma levels update through the day as the options market moves. A wall is not a law - it is where hedging pressure lives *right now*. That is exactly why the Echo Map draws it live instead of from a morning snapshot.

## Gamma for Futures in Dealer Edge and MCP

Dealer Edge reads gamma from options on stocks, ETFs and cash indexes. For index gamma, use the cash index: **SPX** (ES, MES), **NDX** (NQ, MNQ), **RUT** (RTY) or **DJX** (YM). Through Trade Echo MCP, `get_dealer_edge_data` refuses futures roots such as ES and NQ and points your assistant to the futures tools; `get_futures_session_levels` and `get_futures_echo_map` return the walls already mapped onto the future. See [MCP example prompts: Futures](https://tradeecho.com/docs/mcp/examples#futures).