The Idea
Read the market before you trade it. The workflow is three reads in a fixed order - dealer positioning first, time-decay pressure second, live chart confirmation third - and it ends with a written plan before any order goes in. Settings for the standard run: RTH session, 5-minute timeframe.
Step 1 - Structure on DealerEdge
Open DealerEdge and write down four things:
- The Anchor - the primary magnet. Where is it relative to price?
- The Flip - the volatility regime boundary. Which side are we on?
- The GEX Rating - 4-5 means stable, pin-friendly tape; 1-2 means fast, amplified moves; 3 means no clean regime.
- Defense Lines - the secondary structure between here and the Anchor.
This is the skeleton of the day. Nothing in steps 2 or 3 replaces it - they refine it.
Step 2 - Time-Decay on the Charm Shelf
Switch to the Charm lens and find the strongest charm strike. One question: is it above or below current price? That position is the direction time-decay hedging is leaning. Amber concentration above price is a drift target; purple overhead is pressure. On 0DTE this step is not optional - charm is often the strongest force on the board in the afternoon.
The Charm-Stack-at-Anchor Read
The highest-conviction version of this workflow is when the reads agree: the strongest charm concentration stacks at the Anchor. Now the market's biggest magnet and the clock's hedging pressure point at the same strike. On a stable-rating day (4-5), that is the strongest pin scenario the platform can show you - late-session drift toward that strike is the highest-probability version of the read. When charm and the Anchor disagree, respect the disagreement: reduce conviction, tighten targets, or stand aside.
Step 3 - Confirm on Pulse
Open Pulse for the same symbol and check that what you wrote down is what the chart shows: the GEX levels where you expect them, the Charm Drift level matching the strike from step 2. Add OptionFlow or Darkpool only as confirmation filters - they are supporting evidence for a read you already have, not a reason to invent a new one.
Write the Plan, Then Trade It
Before entry, write four lines: trigger (what has to happen), target (usually the Anchor or a Defense Line), invalidation (the level that proves the read wrong), and size (matched to the rating - smaller on 1-2 and 3). If you cannot write all four, you do not have a trade; you have a feeling.
Two honest notes. This is a reading technique, not a signal - the workflow tells you what the mechanical pressures are, never what price must do. And every leg of it is visible in the platform: nothing here requires anything beyond DealerEdge, the Charm lens, and Pulse.
Related
The full step-by-step reference lives in the Charm + Pulse workflow guide in the docs. For the pieces: DealerEdge Quick Start, The Charm Lens, and Pulse Quick Start.