Futures Quick Start

Read the Echo Map in 5 minutes - live CME futures with heatmap, volume profile, gamma force lines, and CVD fused on one chart.

Futures product page Long read on Edge

Get reading in 5 minutes. This guide is for members opening the Futures tab for the first time.

Open the app at app.tradeecho.com - Futures in the sidebar (route /futures).

Futures data requires a one-time free CME data attestation in the app before live data appears - futures are included in every membership.

The Echo Map - live ES futures with dealer gamma levels, volume profile, and CVD

What You're Looking At#

The Echo Map is a price-by-time heatmap of a futures contract, running on officially licensed CME Group real-time data, 24x5. Price runs up the side, session time runs across the bottom, and four layers stack on one axis:

Pressure heatmap (center) - green and red cells showing where buyers or sellers committed volume. Brighter = stronger delta.
Volume profile (left gutter) - how much volume traded at each price, with the POC (point of control, the amber bar) and the dashed value area.
Gamma force lines (right rail, amber) - SPX/NDX dealer positioning projected onto the futures price axis. Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, Flip, Prior, and overnight high/low are your magnet ladder.
CVD (bottom strip) - cumulative buy vs sell aggression on the same time axis as the map. Flow confirms or kills what the heatmap shows.

The bias ribbon above the map summarizes the default regime. When it disagrees with CVD, trust flow.

The amber tag on the right edge is the live price, streaming in real time.

The 60-Second Version#

Step 1: Find the amber lines#

Call Wall above price is where dealers sell into strength. Put Wall below is where they buy weakness. Anchor is the strongest magnet on the map. Gamma Flip (dashed) is where the market changes character.

Step 2: Where is price vs the value area?#

If price is inside the value area (dashed band by the volume profile), expect rotation. If it is above the value area and holding, buyers accepted higher prices - that is a trend day signal. Rejected back inside? Fade it.

Step 3: Check CVD agreement#

The Cumulative Volume Delta strip below the map shares the same time axis. Price making highs while CVD makes lower highs = absorption - sellers are meeting the push. Price up with CVD up = real buying.

Step 4: Check Key Levels and the tape#

The top of the right panel lists Key Levels (VWAP and its bands, overnight high/low, initial balance, opening range, prior day, settlement, volume profile and gamma walls) with the live distance from price in points and ticks. Click one to highlight it on the chart. Below it, Time & Sales streams ES/NQ prints and tints the large ones, and Session CVD shows who has been more aggressive today. See Key Levels, Time & Sales and CVD.

Step 5: Read the Trade Plan#

The right rail's Trade Plan (written by Cortex from the live map) gives you the bias, the base/bull/bear scenarios with exact levels, and the confluence-scored key levels. It updates as the session develops.

Bar interval: 1m / 3m / 5m / 15m / 1H / 1D - resolution of the heatmap and price data
Session lens: 24h / RTH - filter the map to the session window you trade
Auto Live: stream live ticks into the forming column, or freeze the map to study a moment
Layer toggles: Heatmap, Volume Profile, Gamma, CVD, Levels - isolate one layer at a time while you learn (Levels draws the session levels from the Key Levels card)
Map controls: fit/reset the Y axis, plus a right-click menu with Reset chart view and Copy price
Replay: scrub back through any session and watch how the map developed, bar by bar (Key Levels and the largest prints follow the playhead)
Share / copy image: export the current map from the toolbar
Gear menu: hide the watchlist or trade-plan rails, add a price line or candles overlay

The Watchlist#

Nine contracts, all live: ES, NQ, RTY, YM plus micros (MES, MNQ), and CL, GC, ZN. The active symbol's price ticks in real time; the rest refresh continuously. Note: gamma force lines appear only on equity-index contracts (ES/NQ/MES/MNQ/RTY/YM) - crude, gold, and notes have no equity options chain to project from, so those maps show value terrain and pressure only.

Honest Mechanics#

Prices, tape, and CVD stream in real time over a live connection; the structural layers (heatmap, volume profile, gamma) refresh continuously on a short cycle.
Trade classification uses the tick rule (uptick = buyer-initiated, downtick = seller-initiated) applied to every individual CME trade - real prints, standard aggressor inference.
The gamma layer is SPX/NDX dealer positioning from Dealer Edge projected onto the futures price via the index basis. It is the same math you already use on the GEX heatmap, drawn where futures traders can act on it.

Where to Go Next#

Reading the Echo Map - four layers, read order, and the IF / THEN cheat sheet
Gamma on Futures - Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, and Flip on ES
Key Levels, Trade Plan & Replay - the right panel (Key Levels, Time & Sales, CVD, Trade Plan) and the rewind button
MCP example prompts: Futures - ask your AI assistant for the session clock, quotes, tape and levels
Pulse Quick Start - simpler candle chart with overlays when you do not need the full map