What Is the Echo Map?
The Echo Map is Trade Echo's futures module - a price-by-time heatmap of a CME contract running on officially licensed CME Group real-time data, 24x5. Price runs up the side, session time runs across the bottom, and three signals are fused onto one axis: a pressure heatmap of who committed volume where, a volume profile with the point of control and value area, and dealer gamma levels projected from the index options market. A cumulative volume delta (CVD) strip runs underneath on the same time axis.
Most futures charts show you where price went. The Echo Map shows you where traders committed - and whether they are still committed.
The Three Layers
Pressure heatmap. Every cell is one price during one slice of session time. Green means buyers were the aggressors in that cell, red means sellers. Brightness scales with conviction. A column of bright green climbing through prices is initiative buying; bright red printing at the highs is supply meeting the push.
Volume profile. The left gutter shows total volume at each price. The amber bar is the POC (point of control) - the most-traded price, which acts as a magnet in balanced conditions. The dashed band is the value area, the market's zone of agreement.
Gamma force lines. The amber lines are SPX/NDX dealer positioning - Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, and the dashed Gamma Flip - projected onto the futures price axis via the live basis. These are the prices where dealer hedging actually happens, drawn where a futures trader can act on them. No other retail futures chart has this layer.
Your First Read: Step by Step
- Open Futures from the main nav. ES loads with the RTH lens and 5-minute bars.
- Locate price vs the value area. Inside value = rotation day until proven otherwise. Above value and holding = buyers accepted higher prices.
- Find the nearest amber lines. Call Wall above, Put Wall below, Anchor wherever the biggest gamma sits. These are your reference levels before any indicator.
- Check the CVD strip. Is flow confirming price? Price at highs with CVD flat or falling is absorption - the map badges it explicitly.
- Read the Trade Plan in the right rail: Cortex writes the bias, base/bull/bear scenarios with exact trigger and target prices, and confluence-scored key levels from the live map.
Reading the Output
Acceptance: price moves above the value area and builds new volume there. The market repriced; pullbacks to the old value-area edge are buyable in context.
Rejection: price pokes above value on thin volume and falls back inside. Expect rotation toward the POC.
Absorption: price presses highs while CVD diverges. Someone is selling into the move without price breaking yet - the highest-quality fade signal the map produces, especially when it happens into a Call Wall.
Regime: the thesis bar above the map reads it for you - high gamma means pin and mean-revert behavior, low gamma means moves extend. This determines whether you fade edges or follow breaks.
The Toolbar
- Bar interval: 1m to 1D - heatmap resolution follows
- Session lens: Overnight / 24h / RTH
- Layer toggles: isolate heatmap, volume profile, gamma, or CVD while you learn
- Replay: scrub back through any session and watch the map develop bar by bar
- Watchlist: ES, NQ, RTY, YM plus micros (MES, MNQ), and CL, GC, ZN - all streaming live. Gamma lines appear on equity-index contracts only; crude, gold, and notes run value terrain and pressure without them.
Common Mistakes
- Treating a wall as a law. Gamma levels update as the options market moves. A wall is where hedging pressure lives right now - demand flow confirmation before fading it.
- Ignoring the session lens. Overnight structure and RTH structure are different auctions. Check the Overnight lens before the open, then switch to RTH.
- Trading every bright cell. The heatmap is context, not entries. The trade is where heatmap, profile, gamma, and CVD agree - which is exactly what the Key Levels confluence score measures.
Where to Go Next
Gamma Levels on Futures goes deep on the layer that makes the Echo Map unique - why SPX dealer hedging moves ES, and the session playbook for Call Wall, Put Wall, Anchor, and Flip. For the full feature reference, see the Futures docs.