Glossary

Words the framework uses with specific meaning. The definitions below are operational, not academic. They are how each term is used inside the book and inside the framework’s session work. Entries are organized alphabetically. When a term has a chapter where it is established or treated in depth, the chapter is named in the definition. The chapter is the authoritative source; the glossary entry is the reference.

0–9

0DTE: Zero days to expiration. An options contract that expires on the same trading day it is held. SPX 0DTE options expire at the close of the same session in which they are entered. The full mechanics, history, and structural implications are walked in Chapter 1.

AI dependency: The framework needs one capable AI assistant to run the six prompts. It was built and tested on Claude, and the prompts’ structure and the book’s verification examples reflect that. A trader on another platform runs the same prompts, inputs, and deliverables, and takes on re-validation: confirming through the Session Framework Load that the rules come back intact, and checking early outputs against the source data. Established in Chapter 10; verification in Chapter 14.
ATM straddle: An at-the-money straddle is the simultaneous purchase of a call and a put at the same strike, where the strike is closest to the underlying’s current price. Used in the framework as the source for the day’s expected move at the open: the ATM straddle priced at the SPX open, multiplied by 0.85, is the EM value, and EM+ and EM− are derived from it. Established in Chapter 7.
ATR(5): Average True Range over a five-bar lookback: the framework reads TradingView’s built-in ATR at length 5, which smooths true range with Wilder’s method rather than a simple average. The framework uses ATR(5) on the SPX 1-minute chart as the volatility-compression input to the three-signal entry rule. The default ATR period in most platforms is 14; the framework uses 5 explicitly. ATR(5) compression (see Compression) is the second of three required signals. Established in Chapter 16.

Barchart Premier: The framework’s reference source for SPX options chain data. Barchart Premier provides a CSV export of the SPX chain with the strike-by-strike gamma exposure the framework’s GEX analysis depends on, configurable to the current expiration only and to volume weighting. Another source works if it provides the same export; panels and dashboards from other providers serve as visual reference, not as inputs to the premarket build. Established in Chapter 4.
Bear call spread: A defined-risk credit structure consisting of a short call at one strike and a long call at a higher strike on the same expiration. The trader collects credit at entry; the maximum loss is the wing width minus the credit. The framework uses bear call spreads as a credit expression in Dealer Gamma Long, when the resistance side is the credible side or the markedly stronger one (see Markedly stronger), including the fade entry at RT, RB, or CW; a bearish read above GF is expressed this way. Walked in Chapter 15.
Bear put spread; bull call spread: The two debit spreads. See Debit spread.
Bull put spread: A defined-risk credit structure consisting of a short put at one strike and a long put at a lower strike on the same expiration. The trader collects credit at entry; the maximum loss is the wing width minus the credit. The framework uses bull put spreads as a directional credit expression in Dealer Gamma Long, when the support side is the credible side or the markedly stronger one (see Markedly stronger), and as the fade entry at PW when the Put Wall sits above GF. Walked in Chapter 15.

Call Wall (CW): The strike above spot with the largest call gamma exposure in the current-expiration, volume-weighted data (a strike exactly at spot counts on the put side). CW is read as the heaviest structural ceiling on the map because, under the sign convention, the dealer hedging flows at that strike are the largest above the market. The framework rule is explicit: a standard short call clears CW by at least 10 points, and clears by at least 10 points any concentrated call node within 20 points of the short call. Fades at RB or RT are the only exception, and CW must still sit at least 10 points beyond their short strike; a CW fade still sells at least 10 points above CW (Chapter 17). Established in Chapter 7.
Canon: Inside the framework, canon refers to the rules, definitions, and conventions that are settled and operate without re-derivation in any session. The Session Framework Load prompt (Prompt 6) carries the canon at session start. Canon updates are deliberate and infrequent; they happen through the framework iteration discipline (Chapter 13) and are propagated through the Prompt 6 update.
Cboe Level 1: Real-time bid, ask, and last quotes for SPX options as published by the Cboe options exchange and carried to retail platforms on the OPRA feed (see OPRA). Live Level 1 data is required for 0DTE execution management; 15-minute delayed data is not sufficient. Confirming live OPRA chain data on the trading platform (no separate Cboe subscription is needed; Chapter 6) is part of the Readiness Checklist (Appendix D).
Claude: The AI assistant the framework was built and tested on. The prompts run on any capable assistant with re-validation (see AI dependency). Established in Chapters 9 and 10.
Clearance: The required distance between a standard short call and CW, and between that short call and any concentrated call node within 20 points of it: at least 10 points. A CW fade sells at least 10 points above CW, and an RB or RT fade keeps CW at least 10 points beyond its short strike (see Fade entry). No separate clearance applies on the put side. Established in Chapter 7.
Compression: Signal 2 of the three required entry signals: ten or more consecutive 1-minute bars in which ATR(5) never rises above its value on the window’s first bar, with every 1-minute close within 5 SPX points (one strike) of the named GEX level, counting from the 9:36 bar or later. The 5-minute spike–rollover–compression arc is the context read. Established in Chapter 16.
Concentration (cluster): A peak in the strike-by-strike gamma profile: one strike, or a run of adjacent strikes, carrying more gamma than the strikes on either side, measured by its combined gamma. A run grows outward from its heaviest strike across adjacent strikes that each hold at least half that strike’s gamma, with the same sign; it stops before the first strike below half, which is not part of it, and a strike heavier than the run’s peak begins a separate cluster. On each side of the profile, call and put, runs are grown from the heaviest strike first, and a strike already in a run belongs to no other: a lighter peak inside a heavier peak’s run is part of that cluster. A run is followed to its end even past the edge of the belt or band being searched: the band says where peaks are searched, not where a run stops. When a cluster spans a run of adjacent strikes, its level is drawn at the run’s strike farthest from price, so a short strike placed beyond the level clears the whole cluster. RB, RT, ST, and SB are clusters; the walls, CW and PW, are single strikes, so a wall can sit apart from the cluster beside it. When a wall’s strike belongs to the heaviest cluster’s run, the two coincide if the wall is the run’s outer strike, and the cluster level is drawn beyond the wall if the run continues past it. Not the same as a concentrated node (see Node classification). Established in Chapter 7.
Confirmed continuation: The condition that permits a debit spread in Dealer Gamma Short. For the bear put: GF broken to the downside on the three-close rule and the next support level (ST or SB) failing on the same impulsive move, with no 1-minute close back across GF. For the bull call: price below GF in a rally, the next named level overhead (SB or ST) reclaimed on the same impulsive move, and room to run before GF. In both, the move reads as continuation rather than sweep-and-revert, and a fresh GEX print shows the nodes re-formed (the fresh-print gate). Established in Chapters 8 and 15.
Consumption Ratio: See EM consumption.
Contested map: A level map whose features crowd or contradict one another, so entries, strike placement, and confirmation call for more care: an unsettled flip, RT and CW close together, PW close to price, or PN absent, migrating, or close to GF. Its opposite is a well-structured map. Established in Chapter 7.
Credible side / thin side: See Iron condor.
Credit minimum: $0.075 of credit per point of wing ($0.375 on 5 points, $0.75 on 10); see Wing width.
Credit received: The net premium collected at entry on a credit spread or iron condor, reported as the net credit per contract. The framework records credit received in the trading journal alongside the trade structure and the realized risk. Used in the post-mortem to compute return on risk. Walked in Chapter 20.
CSV (Barchart SPX options chain export): The comma-separated-values file the framework uses as the canonical input to the premarket GEX analysis. The CSV exports the strike-by-strike Greeks for the full SPX options chain on the current expiration. Submitted to the AI assistant alongside the panel screenshot at session start through the Premarket Setup prompt. Established in Chapter 4.

Daily Pre-Trade Check: The journal tab worked through before every entry, one line per rule. See Journal (the trading journal); Chapter 20.
Danger Bottom (DB): The outer edge of the put gamma structure below the Support Zone: the outermost strike below SB, within the expected-move band (before EM is set, spot ± 50 points), whose put gamma exposure is at least a quarter of SB’s combined put gamma; not drawn when SB is not. Beyond DB, put gamma structure thins and negative-gamma amplification intensifies. Short put positions below DB carry elevated tail risk. Established in Chapter 7.
Danger Top (DT): The outer edge of the call gamma structure above the Resistance Zone: the outermost strike above RT, within the expected-move band (before EM is set, spot ± 50 points), whose call gamma exposure is at least a quarter of RT’s combined call gamma; not drawn when RT is not. Beyond DT, gamma structure thins; the risk profile for short call positions is elevated. Established in Chapter 7.
Danger Zone: The thinning territory beyond the primary zones: between RT and DT on the upside, and between SB and DB on the downside. Each side is read on its own; a side where no strike in range reaches a quarter of RT’s or SB’s combined gamma has no Danger Zone, and its level is set to 0. The framework does not target Danger Zone entries. DT and DB are context levels. Established in Chapter 7.
Data state: The time a GEX print’s data describes, as distinct from the time it is pulled; with the feed 15 minutes delayed, a print pulled at 10:20 carries a 10:05 data state. Every rule that waits for a print after an event reads the data state, not the clock. Established in Chapter 8.
Dealer Gamma Long: The regime above GF, where aggregate dealer gamma exposure, as the sign convention counts it, is net long. In this regime, dealer hedging is generally stabilizing: when price rises, dealers sell to maintain delta neutrality; when price falls, dealers buy. The framework’s default expressive structure in this regime is the iron condor. Established in Chapter 8.
Dealer Gamma Short: The regime below GF, where aggregate dealer gamma exposure, as the sign convention counts it, is net short. In this regime, dealer hedging is generally destabilizing: when price falls, dealers sell more; when price rises, dealers buy more. The framework enters no credit structure on either side in Dealer Gamma Short; the only entries are debit spreads on confirmed continuation, behind the fresh-print gate (Chapters 8 and 15). Established in Chapter 8.
Debit paid: The net premium paid at entry on a debit structure (a bull call or bear put debit spread). Debit paid equals the maximum risk on the position. The framework records debit paid in the trading journal in a separate column from credit received because the two structure types have different risk-return profiles. Walked in Chapter 20.
Debit spread: A bull call or bear put vertical bought in Dealer Gamma Short, on the regime’s GF read (broken to the downside for a bear put, holding overhead for a bull call) plus confirmed continuation and the fresh-print gate, never after 1:00 PM. The debit, as recorded, must sit under half the wing, since the target is twice the debit and a spread is never worth more than its wing. Target: 100% of the debit, a ceiling rarely reached; most debit trades end at the inverted stop. Hardened stop: the inverted level exit, three consecutive 1-minute closes back through the long strike. Debit spreads carry no time bands, so the first-profitable rule after 2:00 does not apply; the 2:30 PM soft stop reaches only a position not yet profitable; the 3:00 PM cutoff applies. Sized one tier below the credit equivalent: the full session budget ÷ (debit × 100), rounded down, then one EM tier lower (half that count, rounded down, never below 1 contract where one fits, on a standard-tier day; 1 contract on a reduced-tier day; no debit entry on an under-0.30% day), never more than the sizing table allows at that lower tier; the debit must also fit what remains of the session budget—if it does not, there is no debit trade, since the count is not cut to fit—and a count of zero means no debit trade. R is the debit. Walked in Chapter 15, Section 6.
Designed-but-unsubmitted order: See Paper mode; walked in Chapter 22, Section 4.
Discretionary Hold Limit Ratchet: The framework rule that when a position transitions from a profit-target hold to a discretionary hold, a buy-to-close stop is placed at the price that protects at least 50% of the accrued profit, and moved down as the position keeps working; a stop price between ticks goes in at the next tick below, so it still protects at least 50%. It must be a stop (or an alert where the broker lacks stops on spreads), not a limit: a buy-to-close limit above the current mark fills at once. No new discretionary hold is taken after 2:00 PM; a hold begun before 2:00 keeps its ratchet stop until the 3:00 PM cutoff. The 2:30 PM soft stop does not apply to it: a ratcheted hold is profitable by construction and protected by its stop. Walked in Chapter 18.
Disqualifier: A condition that, if present, prevents an entry from being valid even when the three required entry signals align. The framework’s disqualifiers are enumerated in Chapter 16, Section 9, and include trader-state conditions (fatigue, ego, revenge, boredom) routed to Chapter 19, capital and sizing disqualifiers routed to Chapter 23, and macro-calendar disqualifiers routed to Chapter 21.

Eight named entry rules: The eight checks a Trade Setup Evaluation (Prompt 3) reports by name, pass or fail, before any entry: strike placement, three-signal alignment, macro tier, time-of-day entry window, EM tier, directional bias, credit minimum, and structural conflict flags. The three signals of Chapter 16 are one of the eight, checked together as the alignment rule; the other seven cover placement, credit, the calendar, the clock, sizing, directional bias, and structural conflicts, which the signals do not. Structure choice is checked inside two of them: the one-third ceiling under credit minimum, and the credible, thin, and markedly stronger tests and the over-ceiling downgrade under strike placement. A rule the output does not list was not checked. Established in Chapter 11, Section 3.
EM (Expected Move): The implied range the options chain has priced for the session. The framework derives EM from the ATM straddle priced at the open, multiplied by 0.85. That convention prices even odds: about half of sessions close outside it when realized volatility matches what the straddle implied, and fewer when realized runs below implied. EM is fixed at the open and does not update during the session. Before the open sets it, the band is taken as spot ± 50 points for every level search that uses it (GF’s search window, the resistance belt, DT and DB, the Put Wall sanity check) and for the 20% concentrated-node test, and every level (ST keeps its 50-point window from spot), with the concentrated or distributed classification of each dominant node, is re-confirmed once EM is supplied. Established in Chapter 7.
EM+ (Expected Move Upper): The upper boundary of the day’s expected move. Computed as the SPX opening price plus the EM value. Used by the framework as a range check on level placements and as context for short call placement: a short call inside EM+ must be defended by a named level. Established in Chapter 7.
EM− (Expected Move Lower): The lower boundary of the day’s expected move. Computed as the SPX opening price minus the EM value; equidistant from the open with EM+. Skew shows up in how fast price travels toward EM−, not in where it sits. Established in Chapter 7.
EM consumption: The portion of the day’s expected move that has been used by the time of evaluation, read as the Consumption Ratio (Realized Move, the session high minus the session low, divided by EM). EM consumption is the third of three required entry signals: 50% and above confirms, and above 100% is normal by midday and still confirms; under 50% confirms only with a named structural read. The disqualifier is the envelope break. Established in Chapter 7; applied in Chapter 16.
EM tier: The sizing adjustment set by the EM as a percentage of spot at the open: under 0.30%, at most 1 contract (premium that thin often fails the credit minimum) and no debit entry; 0.30–0.75%, standard sizing; above 0.75%, reduced (half the sizing table, rounded down, never below 1 contract where one fits). At SPX near 6,600 the boundaries sit near 20 and 50 points. Applied in Chapter 23, Section 4.
Envelope break: The Signal 3 disqualifier, read on closes: three consecutive 1-minute closes outside EM+ block new credit on the call side, and outside EM−, on the put side; a session range wider than twice the EM blocks all new credit. A touch of EM+ or EM− is not a break. Marks the trend and expansion days where short premium is most exposed. Established in Chapter 7; applied in Chapter 16.
EOD Post-Mortem: Prompt 5 in the framework’s six-prompt set, run after the close: a structured review of the session against the framework’s own rules—the entries, whether they cleared the three signals, what was held and exited—and of what the journal entry should record. Established in Chapter 11.
ES futures: E-mini S&P 500 futures. The framework uses the ES 5-minute overnight chart to establish the overnight high, low, and VWAP before the open, as a reference for the open; they are not a Premarket Setup input. ES also serves as a live intraday reference, and the fade entry’s VWAP confirmation needs a real-time ES read. Established in Chapter 4 and Appendix D.
Event Tag: The journal field that marks a trade taken or shadowed under an event rule: Post-FOMC Morning, Post-FOMC Escalated, NFP Shadow, CPI Shadow, or Tier 2 Day. Tagged rows collect on the Shadow Log. Walked in Chapter 20.
Exit hierarchy: The order in which the exit rules govern a position, highest first: Macro Break-Glass; the hardened stops (the level-based exit and the mark stop, whichever fires first); the 3:00 PM hard cutoff; the 2:30 PM soft stop; the time-adjusted profit targets; and the discretionary hold limit ratchet, which operates inside the targets. When two rules apply, the higher one wins, and no rule is ever suspended in favor of one below it. A ratcheted hold keeping its stop past 2:30 does not invert this: the soft stop governs positions not yet profitable, and the hold is profitable by construction and protected by its stop to 3:00. Established in Chapter 18, Section 8.
Expectancy: The average net P&L per trade after fees and slippage: win rate times average net win, minus loss rate times average net loss. The framework’s paper-to-live gate requires positive expectancy across at least forty paper sessions and thirty closed paper trades, inside a 6R drawdown (see Paper-to-live gate), with win rate reported beside it, because at the framework’s targets and stop a high win rate can still lose money. Established in Chapter 23.

Fade entry: A credit spread whose short strike sits just beyond a level being tested for the second time: a bear call at RT, RB, or CW, or a bull put at PW when the Put Wall sits above GF. Its signals: GF held (standard); ATR(5) declining at the level with no expanding bar (no ten-bar count); price within 2 to 3 points of the level. The Consumption Ratio is not a fade signal, but the envelope veto still applies. ES VWAP confirmation is required, and the entry is taken only while the second test is in progress, once a print whose data state follows the first test has confirmed the node within 10 points. The short strike sits 5 points beyond the level (a CW fade sells at least 10 points above CW, and CW stays at least 10 points beyond an RB or RT fade’s short strike) on a 10-point wing, with the credit minimum ($0.75) as the floor. Because the credit typically runs above a third of the wing, a fade is sized on its maximum loss (wing width minus credit), and its working stop is the level-based exit. No entries after 1:00 PM. Established in Chapter 17.
Five failure modes: The five named failure modes the framework’s discipline guards against: mid-session rule modification, structure-selection-by-bias, trader-state failures at entry, iteration-as-rationalization, and held-through-expiration as a category. Walked in Chapter 19.
Four-rule test: The four rules a candidate change must clear after Chapter 25’s four pre-evaluation conditions and before canon evaluation: it preserves fast execution, avoids friction with the rules in force, carries an auditable structural argument, and closes a gap rather than adding redundancy. Established in Chapter 13, Section 2.
Framework iteration: The discipline by which the framework changes over time. Iteration happens out of session, against accumulated journal evidence, through the canon-evaluation discipline. Mid-session rule modification is a named failure mode and is not iteration. Walked in Chapters 13 and 25.
Fresh-print gate: After GF is crossed, no new position, credit or debit, is entered until a GEX print taken after the cross shows the structural map re-formed around the new regime, with the dominant nodes re-seated on the new side of GF: GF recomputed on that print sits on the far side of the cross, and the level the entry relies on appears on the print’s map, at the strike the print gives it. The print’s data state must be after the cross; with the data 15 minutes delayed, that is no earlier than 15 minutes after it. Until it arrives, no level-reliant entry is taken, and an open position runs on the hardened stops. Established in Chapter 8.

Gamma: The rate of change of an option’s delta with respect to the underlying price. Gamma exposure measures how much an option’s directional sensitivity will shift as the underlying moves. The framework’s GEX-based reading of the market is built on the aggregate gamma exposure of dealer positions, not on individual option gamma. Established in Chapter 2.
Gamma exposure (GEX): The aggregate gamma position of options market makers across all SPX strikes. GEX is the framework’s primary structural input. Under the sign convention, positive GEX reads as dealers net long gamma (stabilizing) and negative GEX as dealers net short gamma (destabilizing); the convention is an assumption, not a measurement (Chapter 2). The framework reads GEX through panel screenshots and through the strike-by-strike CSV. Established in Chapter 2.
Gamma Flip (GF): The defining anchor of the framework: the price level at which aggregate dealer gamma exposure transitions from net long to net short, read as the operative CSV zero-crossing nearest spot—searched within the expected-move band (before EM is set, spot ± 50 points), and still GF when the only nearby crossing sits just beyond the band’s edge—not any incidental sign change far from price. GF is an estimate (Chapter 2), anchored to that CSV-derived crossing; a provider’s smoothed panel value is read as corroboration, not as a figure that overrides it. When the CSV crossing and the panel’s stated flip differ by more than 10 points (two strikes), the flip is unsettled (see Unsettled flip). The framework rule for GF is absolute: GF must hold before any iron condor or credit spread entry is valid. Established in Chapter 7.
GEX Suite: The framework’s chart layer: a single Pine Script indicator on TradingView that plots the GEX levels, the expected-move bounds, and the running HOD/LOD, with a Level Key naming each line. Updated by pasting the complete script the prompts produce. Established in Chapter 12; code on the companion site, documented in Appendix B.

Hard cutoff (3:00 PM): The framework rule that every open position closes at 3:00 PM ET, regardless of P&L. The rule is mechanical, not discretionary. Established in Chapter 18.
Hardened level-based exit: The exit that closes a credit spread or iron condor in full, at the bid/ask, after three consecutive 1-minute closes at or through a short strike (for a position carrying a short put, after a break below GF—three consecutive 1-minute closes below it—through the first named support level below GF, normally ST, or at the short put strike as usual when no named level is drawn below GF). Hardened means nothing suspends it: once it fires there is no profit target, time band, soft stop, ratchet, or leg-out evaluation. It runs beside the mark stop, and whichever fires first governs. Established in Chapter 18, Section 3.
hline: The single confirmed-working function in WebullScript that the framework uses. Every line in the WebullScript version of the chart layer is an hline call; the Pine Script Suite draws its levels with line.new instead. Established in Chapter 12 and detailed in Appendix B.
HOD / LOD: High of day and low of day. Two horizontal lines plotted by the Intraday HOD/LOD section of the GEX Suite, which tracks each new session extreme as it prints and resets at the start of each session; in the WebullScript version they are entered by hand. Used by the framework’s prompts and by the trader as a running reference for what range the session has actually traveled. Established in Chapter 12.

IC: See Iron condor.
Intraday Update: Prompt 2 in the framework’s six-prompt set. Run hourly through the session, and any time price approaches a level the trader is watching for an entry. Refreshes the structural read against the most recent CSV. Established in Chapter 11.
Inverted level exit: See Debit spread.
Iron condor: A defined-risk credit structure consisting of a bear call spread and a bull put spread at the same expiration, with the short strikes positioned to bracket an expected price range. The framework’s default expressive structure in Dealer Gamma Long, used when both sides of the map are credible: a side is credible when a short strike placed outside its named level by the placement rules, on a 5–10-point wing, collects a credit inside the credit band—at least the credit minimum and under a third of the wing—and thin when it has no such level or the clearance buffer disqualifies it; a one-sided map takes the vertical on the credible side, and a two-sided map takes it on the stronger side when one side is markedly stronger (see Markedly stronger). Walked in Chapter 15.

Journal (the trading journal): The evidence record the framework keeps for every session, traded or not. The journal records the structure, the credit or debit, the structural inputs, whether the entry cleared the three signals, the exit, the realized P&L, and the trader-state observations. The journal is what the framework iterates against. Walked in Chapter 20.

Leg-out: The exit of one side of an iron condor while the other side remains open. Each side’s share of the credit is fixed at entry from the fill and recorded. The leg-out runs when one side’s mark reaches two times its own share, before 2:00 PM, and only if neither hardened stop has fired, any legacy day-trade budget leaves at least two day trades in reserve, and the AI session can still support the decision (it cannot once the conversation is near its limit or has started dropping loaded rules, as the trader reports or the assistant warns): the losing side closes at the bid/ask, and the surviving side is judged against its own share and the target in force, closing too if it is already past that target. A surviving side keeps the position’s hardened stops on its own terms: the level-based exit at its own short strike and the mark stop at three times its own share. Closing the winning side and leaving the loser open is never permitted. When the day-trade or AI-session condition fails before 2:00, the leg-out tree’s default close takes the whole position off at the bid/ask; a hardened stop that has fired closes it under that stop’s own exit reason. A leg-out, or that default close, counts as stopped in the losing side’s direction for the session’s re-entry rule (Chapter 16, Section 9). Walked in Chapter 18, Section 7.
Level-based exit: See Hardened level-based exit.
Level Key: The corner table the GEX Suite prints on the chart, listing each active level by code, name, and price, sorted from highest to lowest and colored to match its line. On by default. Established in Chapter 12.

Macro Break-Glass: The one exit above the hardened stops. A named in-session catalyst (an unscheduled headline, speech, or emergency action) plus a structural break in the gamma map (GF migrating sharply, dominant nodes collapsing or relocating) closes every position immediately at the bid/ask. Whether a change on the print is a structural break is the trader’s read, made on the print, recorded with the trigger, and reviewed at the post-mortem. Volatility alone does not trigger it. The structural break must show on a GEX print whose data state is after the headline, in practice no earlier than 15 minutes after it; until that print arrives, the hardened stops govern. Established in Chapter 21, Section 6; placed in the exit hierarchy in Chapter 18.
Macro calendar: The calendar of scheduled economic releases and Federal Reserve events that influence SPX volatility on the day. The framework classifies macro events into two tiers: Tier 1 (FOMC, NFP, CPI) suspends the framework entirely; Tier 2 (the ten events Chapter 21 lists, from first-estimate GDP and Core PCE to ISM, JOLTS, Retail Sales, PPI, Treasury Refunding, FOMC Minutes, and ADP) allows the framework to resume no sooner than 45 to 60 minutes post-print (about 90 for Core PCE) after re-validation confirms the structure. Sub-Tier-2 events (Housing Starts, Initial Jobless Claims, routine Treasury auctions, and similar) do not warrant framework adjustment. Walked in Chapter 21.
Margin: In the framework, margin means the broker’s margin: a margin account is one of the three spread trading prerequisites (see Spread trading prerequisites). Not the same as clearance (see Clearance).
Mark stop: The dollar-based stop that runs beside the level-based exit: the position closes at the bid/ask when the spread’s mark reaches three times the credit received, a loss of two times the credit. Placed as a standing stop where the broker supports one on spreads, at the next tick below when three times the credit falls between ticks, otherwise as a price alert with a manual close. Three times the credit must sit below the wing, so a standard spread collects less than a third of its width; a fade, whose credit runs higher, is sized on its maximum loss instead (see Fade entry). The stop behaves two ways. With the credit near the one-third ceiling it sits at or beyond the long strike, and the level-based exit usually fires first; only with a credit near the floor can it fire before price reaches the short strike. Established in Chapter 18.
Markedly stronger: A side of the structural map is markedly stronger when its largest single strike inside the EM band (normally its wall), whether or not drawn, is a concentrated node by Chapter 7’s 20% test (one strike holding at least 20% of the absolute gamma inside the expected-move band) while the other side’s is distributed. The single vertical then goes on the concentrated side, even on a two-sided map. Otherwise a two-sided map, both sides credible, takes the iron condor, and the over-ceiling downgrade applies. Established in Chapter 15, Section 5.

Named structural read: The journal entry, written before entry, that lets Signal 3 confirm when the Consumption Ratio is under 50%. It passes only if it names (1) a level on today’s map, (2) the behavior seen there, and (3) the price that invalidates it (for example, “RT 6,620; absorbing, ATR(5) flat for twelve bars; invalidated by three closes above 6,625”). Missing any part, Signal 3 fails. A read written after the fill does not count. Established in Chapter 16.
Negative-gamma regime: See Dealer Gamma Short.
Negative-Gamma Regime Exception (negative-gamma exception): The accelerated exit for a position carrying a short put (a bull put, or a condor’s put side): once three consecutive 1-minute closes put price below GF, three consecutive 1-minute closes below the first named support level below GF, normally ST, close the position at the bid/ask, whatever the short put strike. When no named level is drawn below GF, the exception has no trigger, and the level-based exit at the short put strike and the mark stop govern as usual. Established in Chapter 18, Section 3.
Node classification (concentrated or distributed): A dominant call node within 20 points of a short call is concentrated when one strike holds at least 20% of the absolute gamma inside the expected-move band (before EM is set, spot ± 50 points, with the classification re-run against the EM band at the open); the short call must then clear it by at least 10 points. Gamma spread across several strikes with no single peak is distributed. The same 20% test classifies either side’s largest single strike inside the EM band, normally its wall, when structure selection asks whether one side is markedly stronger (see Markedly stronger). The terms describe node behavior, not level identity. Established in Chapter 7 and detailed in Chapter 15.

One-third ceiling: See Mark stop.
Open interest (OI): The number of contracts still open, counted once a day from the prior close. The input most published gamma exposure uses, and the reason most dashboards’ levels differ from this framework’s: today’s series carries open interest from the days it has been listed, but the once-a-day count cannot see the day’s own trading, which for a same-day contract is most of its activity. Established in Chapter 4.
OPRA: Options Price Reporting Authority. The consolidated tape that aggregates real-time options quote and trade data across the U.S. options exchanges, including Cboe. OPRA Level 1 data is the source of the live SPX options chain; subscription cost is established in Chapter 6.
Options approval level: The broker-assigned permission tier governing which options strategies an account is allowed to trade. Webull uses four levels. Level 3, defined-risk spreads, is the minimum the framework’s structures require; Level 4 adds naked options and ratio spreads, which the framework does not use. On Webull, Level 3 also requires a margin account and a minimum start-of-day margin equity. See also Spread trading prerequisites.

Panel (the GEX panel): The provider’s smoothed GEX visualization, typically delivered as a screenshot. The framework uses the panel as a source for the smoothed gamma-flip value (which corroborates the CSV-derived GF) and the dominant gamma cluster reads, and, premarket, for spot, the price in its $SPX title. Submitted to the AI assistant alongside the Barchart CSV as part of the Premarket Setup. Established in Chapter 4.
Paper mode: The framework’s validation mode: the live order is built in full and never submitted, and each fill is recorded at the mid with slippage against it ($0.05 per two-leg spread, $0.10 on an iron condor’s ticket), with fees, except a filled resting limit exit (a profit target, or the after-2:00 limit one tick below the credit), which is recorded at its limit price once the spread’s mid moves one tick through it, with no slippage added, and a stop-out (the mark stop, the level-based exit including a debit’s inverted level exit, the negative-gamma exception, the ratchet stop, a leg-out’s losing side, the leg-out tree’s default close, or a Macro Break-Glass close), which is recorded at its actual fill, the far side of the bid/ask plus slippage, never at the mid. On XSP, slippage is at least one tick. Targets and stops are computed from the recorded credit or debit at the tick prices a live order would carry. Paper mode runs until the paper-to-live gate clears. Walked in Chapter 22.
Paper-to-live gate: The discipline gate between paper mode and live capital: positive expectancy after fees and slippage across at least forty paper sessions and at least thirty closed paper trades, with a paper drawdown that never exceeds 6R (six planned losses) from its high; a breach restarts the count, with sessions, trades, expectancy, and the drawdown high all counted again from the first session after it and the paper rows up to and including the breaching session set aside (TYPE Set Aside), and a failed discipline record (trades the rules did not authorize, a Tier 1 entry among them, except in a session the trader set aside by declaring a disqualifying state at the pre-trade check) pauses it, with every row in the failing stretch, winners and losers alike, set aside: the stretch runs from the first session after the last review that found the record clean through the session in which the failure is found, sessions run while the count is paused are set aside too, and counting resumes with the first session after the cause is fixed and any candidate rule it prompted is decided. Win rate, average win, average loss, and largest loss are reported beside it, not used as the gate. A paper session counts when the full workflow ran (premarket setup, the pre-trade check for any entry considered, post-mortem) on a day not excluded, whether or not it traded; a session without a trade is one No Trade row, outside win rate and the other per-trade rates. It shows the rules can be run as written, under realistic costs, without a run of losses the sizing did not allow for; it does not prove an edge. With thirty trades the 6R limit rarely binds: it guards discipline, not edge. Established in Chapter 23, Section 2.
PDT (Pattern Day Trader): A former regulatory classification under FINRA Rule 4210 that limited margin accounts under $25,000 to three day trades in a rolling five-business-day window. An amendment effective June 4, 2026, retired the designation and the $25,000 minimum, replacing both with an intraday margin standard; brokers may phase the change in through October 20, 2027. Where a broker still runs the old rule, the framework keeps a day trade in reserve (Chapter 18, Section 7). Walked in Chapter 23.
Pin (PN): The strike with the largest total gamma exposure, calls and puts combined (the Absolute Gamma Exposure column maximum): the single-strike concentration that exerts a magnetic pull on price in the final hours of the session. From 1:00 PM, pin confidence degrades when GF sits within 25 points of PN. Established in Chapter 7.
Pine Script: TradingView’s indicator scripting language and the framework’s syntax of record for the chart layer. The GEX Suite is written in Pine Script version 5. Walked in Chapter 12 and detailed in Appendix B.
Planned loss: See R (risk unit).
Position Monitor: Prompt 4 in the framework’s six-prompt set. Run when a position is open and the trader needs a structured read on whether the held position is still on its thesis. Established in Chapter 11.
Positive-gamma regime: See Dealer Gamma Long.
Premarket Setup: Prompt 1 in the framework’s six-prompt set. Run at the start of each trading session along with the opening Barchart CSV and the GEX panel screenshot. Establishes the day’s structural baseline. Established in Chapter 11.
Prompt: In the framework, a prompt is the named, canonical text that is pasted into the AI assistant to invoke a specific framework operation. The framework runs on six prompts; their working anatomy lives in Chapter 11 and their verbatim text in Appendix A.
Put Wall (PW): The strike at or below spot with the largest put gamma exposure in the current-expiration, volume-weighted data. PW is read as a floor while price holds above GF, where net dealer gamma is long, and as an accelerant once price breaks below GF, because under the sign convention dealers are short the puts there. Subject to skew asymmetry: PW proximity carries more weight than equivalent CW distance. When PW sits below EM− (before EM is set, more than 50 points below spot), the nearest put cluster below spot whose heaviest strike sits inside the EM band (or, before EM is set, within 50 points of spot) and that holds at least a quarter of PW’s put gamma substitutes for it: PW becomes that cluster’s heaviest strike, a single strike inside the band, and that strike is never itself substituted. The substitution is flagged. If no cluster qualifies, PW stays at the CSV strike and the notes flag it. At the open the Put Wall sanity check runs again from the CSV-derived PW against the band the EM sets. Established in Chapter 7.

R (risk unit): The planned loss on a credit spread or condor, two times the credit received, used as the unit for results: a win at half the credit is +0.25R, a full mark-stop loss is −1R. For a fade, R is the maximum loss (wing width minus credit); for a debit spread, the debit. The journal’s R column computes it on every row. Used in Appendix F.
Readiness Checklist: The infrastructure checklist (Appendix D) the trader works through once before the first paper-mode session and verifies before the first live session. Twenty-one items across five categories: Account and Access, Data Infrastructure, Platform Configuration, AI Workflow, and Trading Discipline. Not the journal’s Daily Pre-Trade Check, which runs every session.
Realized Move (RM): The session high minus the session low at the moment of reading: the distance the day has actually traveled. RM divided by EM is the Consumption Ratio. Established in Chapter 7.
Realized risk: The framework defines realized risk on a credit structure as twice the credit received, enforced by the mark stop: the position closes when the spread’s mark reaches three times the credit. For a fade, realized risk is the maximum loss; for a debit spread, the debit. At a 50% profit target that is about a 25% return on risk; the breakeven win rate sits at 80% before costs at that target, about 80–85% across the framework’s targets, and about 83–88% net of fees and slippage. That is a conservative bound: it treats every loss as the full planned loss, with each stop-out at the $0.15 round trip (paper mode’s far-side stop fills cost a little more), and losses closed earlier are smaller. Established in Chapter 18.
Regime: In the framework, regime refers specifically to the GEX regime—Dealer Gamma Long or Dealer Gamma Short. The regime governs which structural expressions are appropriate for the day. The regime is read from where price sits relative to GF. Established in Chapter 8.
Resistance belt: The search window for the resistance levels: the call strikes above PN up to EM+ (before EM is set, up to 50 points above spot). RT is the heaviest call concentration in the belt; RB is the first call concentration above PN. The belt says where peaks are searched; a run is followed to its end even past the belt’s edge (see Concentration). Established in Chapter 7.
Resistance Bottom (RB): The lower edge of the primary call-side resistance zone above GF: the first call concentration above PN, never the pin itself, and not drawn when the belt holds no call peak. Used for fade entry placement; bear call short strike 5 points above RB on the second test, with CW at least 10 points beyond it. Established in Chapter 7.
Resistance Top (RT): The upper edge of the primary call-side resistance zone above GF. The heaviest call concentration in the resistance belt; not drawn when the belt holds no call peak. Established in Chapter 7.
RTH (Regular Trading Hours): The 9:30 AM–4:00 PM ET session for SPX cash; SPX options trade until 4:15 PM, but the expiring series the framework trades stop at 4:00 PM. The framework operates within RTH. The daily SPX contracts the framework trades list as SPXW (the PM-settled weekly series), which share the cash-settled mechanism.

Second-test rule: See Fade entry; walked in Chapter 17, Section 4.
Section 1256: The Internal Revenue Code section under which gains and losses on broad-based index options such as SPX and XSP are taxed 60% as long-term and 40% as short-term capital gains, whatever the holding period, with open positions marked to market at year end. SPY options do not qualify. Treated in Chapter 6.
Session budget: The loss allowed a whole session, set before the open at 1–2% of account equity. It is cumulative: each entry is sized so its planned loss (the maximum loss for a fade, the debit for a debit spread) fits within what remains, and trading stops for the day once the session’s losses reach it. At the low end a fade or a second entry may not fit; then it is not taken. Set in Chapter 23, Section 4.
Session Framework Load: Prompt 6 in the framework’s six-prompt set. Run once per session, at the start, before any of the operational prompts (1 through 5) are invoked. Carries the framework’s rule set—definitions, rules, conventions—that the other five prompts operate against. Established in Chapter 11.
Set Aside: A journal TYPE that keeps a row out of the paper record and the gate; see Paper-to-live gate.
Shadow Log: The journal tab that collects results by Event Tag, so the event rules can be tested against evidence: hypothetical Shadow rows on suspended NFP and CPI days beside real post-FOMC-morning and Tier 2 trades, with a line of its own for untagged Shadow rows, the setups a candidate rule under evaluation refused (Chapter 25, Section 7). Shadow rows never count toward any KPI or the paper-to-live gate. Walked in Chapter 20, Section 5, and Chapter 21, Section 3.
Shadow row: See Shadow Log.
Short strike: The strike the credit structure sells: the lower strike of a bear call spread, the higher strike of a bull put spread. The short strike’s placement relative to the GEX levels is the primary structural validity test for the entry. Established in Chapter 15.
Sign convention: The assumption, used by most GEX providers, that dealers are net long calls and net short puts, so call gamma counts positive and put gamma negative. It is an assumption about dealer positioning, not a measurement of it. Established in Chapter 2.
Six prompts (the): The framework’s canonical prompt set: (1) Premarket Setup, (2) Intraday Update, (3) Trade Setup Evaluation, (4) Position Monitor, (5) EOD Post-Mortem, and (6) Session Framework Load. Walked in Chapter 11; verbatim text in Appendix A.
Skew (volatility skew): The structural pattern in equity index options where implied volatility is higher for out-of-the-money puts than for equivalent out-of-the-money calls. The framework treats skew as an embedded asymmetry in the data: put-side levels deserve more caution than equivalent-distance call-side levels, because implied volatility tends to rise as SPX falls and speeds up dealer hedging on the downside. Established in Chapter 7.
Soft stop (2:30 PM): The framework rule that, at 2:30 PM ET, a position not yet profitable holds for the fill only if it is within $0.25 of a profitable close ($0.02 on XSP), and otherwise closes at the bid/ask. A discretionary hold begun before 2:00 PM is exempt: it is profitable by construction and protected by its ratchet stop. Paired with the 3:00 PM hard cutoff. Established in Chapter 18.
Spread trading prerequisites: The three concurrent conditions a broker requires before an account can place credit-spread or debit-spread orders: a margin account, Level 3 options approval, and a minimum start-of-day margin equity (typically $2,000, including at Webull). All three must be met; one out of three is not sufficient. The $2,000 floor is the regulatory minimum; the framework’s sizing table starts live trading at about $3,000, 1 XSP contract (Chapter 23, Section 4).
SPX: The S&P 500 cash index. SPX options are European-style, cash-settled options on the SPX index. The framework operates on SPX 0DTE options; the cash-settled mechanic is one of the structural reasons the framework prefers SPX over equivalent ETF-based options.
SPY: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF. Its options are the most liquid small-size alternative to SPX, but they are American-style and physically settled, their gains are short-term capital gains, taxed at ordinary rates, and they carry their own dealer positioning, so the framework does not use them; XSP is its small-account instrument. Walked in Chapter 23, Section 4.
Strike: The price against which an option’s exercise value is measured; the cash-settled SPX and XSP options the framework trades pay the difference between the settlement value and the strike, in cash. In the framework, strike placement is the load-bearing decision in any entry: the short put goes at or beyond the first strike below ST, 5 points below it on SPX (or, when PW sits above GF and is the nearest named support above the flip, at or beyond the first strike below PW), never at ST; the standard short call clears CW by at least 10 points, and clears by at least 10 points any concentrated call node within 20 points of the short call. Fades are the one exception: the short strike sits 5 points beyond RB, RT, or PW, with CW still at least 10 points beyond an RB or RT fade’s short strike, and a CW fade sells at least 10 points above CW (Chapter 17). Walked in Chapters 15 and 16.
Support Bottom (SB): The lower edge of the primary put-side support zone below GF: the next put cluster below ST holding at least a quarter of ST’s combined put gamma; not drawn when none qualifies or ST is not drawn. Price breaking SB with conviction is a structural warning. Established in Chapter 7.
Support Top (ST): The upper edge of the primary put-side support zone below GF: the dominant put cluster below GF whose heaviest strike sits within 50 points of spot at the time of the print, as for the walls; not drawn, with SB and DB, when no cluster qualifies, and the put side then reads thin unless PW sits above GF and anchors the short put. Bull put short strikes go at or beyond the first strike below it (at or beyond the first strike below PW instead when PW sits above GF and is the nearest named support above the flip), entered while price holds above GF; because ST sits below GF, it is not a fade level. Established in Chapter 7.

Test, sweep, break: Three classes of price action at a level: a test reverses without three consecutive 1-minute closes through it; a liquidity sweep pierces briefly and may print one or two closes through, never three in a row; a break is three consecutive 1-minute closes through. Walked in Chapter 17, Section 5.
Three-signal entry rule: The framework’s primary entry discipline. An iron condor or credit spread entry is valid only when all three of the following conditions are aligned: (1) GF held: no three consecutive 1-minute closes below GF in the 30 minutes before the decision (or since 9:30 if that is shorter); (2) ATR(5) compression at a named GEX level (see Compression); (3) EM consumption confirmation, with no envelope break. A fade reads its own three in their place (GF held; ATR(5) declining at the level with no expanding bar; price within 2 to 3 points of the level), and a debit spread reads its three conditions (GF broken, or held below for a bull call; confirmed continuation; the fresh-print gate); the journal’s three signal columns record whichever set the entry used. Established in Chapter 16.
Tick: The smallest step in which a price is quoted: $0.05 on SPX and $0.01 on XSP for the spreads the framework trades. Paper-mode slippage on XSP is at least one tick, and the after-2:00 limit sits one tick below the credit. Defined in How to Use This Book; applied in Chapter 18.
Tier 1 / Tier 2 / sub-Tier-2 macro events: The framework’s macro-calendar classification; see Macro calendar. Walked in Chapter 21.
Tier 1A: A candidate classification under evaluation, not a rule: Tier 2 re-validation parameters applied to NFP and CPI. See Chapter 25, Section 3.
Time-adjusted profit target: The framework rule that a position’s profit target runs on the clock and tightens as the session progresses (50% before 11:00, 40–45% to 1:00, 35% after 1:00, the first profitable opportunity after 2:00), reflecting accelerating theta and the rising structural risk of the final session hours. The target is worked as a resting buy-to-close limit at the band’s price (a price between ticks goes in at the next tick below; in the 40–45% band, a tick inside the band, or the next tick below it if none lies inside, chosen when the band begins), re-priced when the band changes; after 2:00 the limit sits one tick below the credit. Profitable means the spread can be bought back below the credit received, before fees. Debit spreads carry no time bands; their target is 100% of the debit. Walked in Chapter 18.
Trade Setup Evaluation: Prompt 3 in the framework’s six-prompt set. Run when a candidate entry is evaluated against the eight named entry rules, the three-signal rule among them (see Eight named entry rules). Established in Chapter 11.
Trader-state: The trader’s psychological and physiological state at the moment of an entry decision. The framework names four trader-state failure modes that disqualify an entry even when the three signals align: fatigue, ego, revenge, and boredom. Walked in Chapter 19.

Unsettled flip: A gamma flip whose CSV crossing and the panel’s stated value differ by more than 10 points (two strikes). GF stays on the CSV crossing, the flip is flagged in the notes, and the fresh-print gate applies before any level-reliant entry. Established in Chapter 7.

Validation (paper mode): See Paper mode and Paper-to-live gate; walked in Chapter 22.
Vega (Webull’s AI): The in-platform AI assistant inside Webull. Vega on the desktop drafts calculated indicators outside the framework’s chart layer; Vega chat in the mobile app answers market-context questions. Neither is part of the framework’s toolkit: both were evaluated and not kept, and Claude carries both jobs. Not the option Greek vega (Options Primer). Evaluated in Chapter 10.
Verification (of AI output): The framework’s standing discipline of treating every AI-generated artifact as unverified data until the trader has checked it against the source. CSVs are reconciled against panel reads; chart-layer code is reviewed before loading; prompt outputs are checked against framework rules. Established in Chapter 14.
Volume weighting: Building gamma exposure from contracts traded rather than contracts open. The framework’s basis for 0DTE levels, because the overnight open-interest snapshot cannot see the day’s own trading, which for same-day contracts is most of their activity. Volume shows where hedging activity concentrates, not who holds what. Established in Chapter 4.
VWAP: Volume-Weighted Average Price. The ES overnight VWAP is a reference for the open, not a Premarket Setup input; the intraday ES VWAP is the fade entry’s confirmation read. Established in Chapter 4 and Appendix D.

Wall (the Walls): Collective name for CW (Call Wall) and PW (Put Wall) when discussed together. The Walls are the heaviest call and put concentrations on their sides of spot; the framework draws them with a dashed line style to distinguish them visually from the zone lines. Established in Chapters 7 and 12.
WebullScript: The scripting language inside the Webull desktop platform. The framework’s chart layer has a WebullScript version, three indicators (GEX Levels, Expected Move, Intraday HOD/LOD), for traders who chart on a Webull SPX 1-minute or 5-minute chart. Pine Script is the syntax of record; WebullScript is the reference version. Walked in Chapter 12 and detailed in Appendix B.
Wing width: On a credit spread or iron condor, the distance in points between the short strike and the long strike on the same side. The wing width determines the maximum loss on the structure (wing width minus credit received). Standard wings run 5 to 10 points; fades use 10. The credit minimum scales with the wing: $0.075 of credit per point of wing—$0.375 on 5 points, $0.75 on 10. Walked in Chapters 15 and 17.

XSP: The Mini-SPX index option: the S&P 500 at one-tenth the size of SPX, cash-settled, exercisable only at expiration, with Monday-through-Friday expirations, so a same-day series trades every session. The framework’s instrument for accounts too small to carry 1 SPX contract inside the session budget; levels are read from the SPX chain and divided by ten, with strikes rounded outward, and every dollar threshold is divided by ten (so the credit minimum is $0.075 per XSP point of wing, 1 XSP point being 10 SPX points), except that slippage is never less than one tick. Walked in Chapter 23, Section 4.

Two notes on what the glossary does not cover.

First, common options terms (delta, gamma, theta, vega, premium, expiration, strike, exercise, assignment, settlement) are defined where they first appear in the chapters and are not duplicated here unless the framework uses them with narrower or modified meaning. The glossary is the framework’s working vocabulary, not a substitute for an options-trading reference.

Second, vendor and platform names that appear in the book (Webull, Barchart, Cboe, TradingView, Anthropic, Claude) are described where they first appear and are not redefined here. The glossary gives them entries only where they play a specific role inside the framework (Barchart Premier, Cboe Level 1, and Claude), plus Vega, which a Webull user meets by default and Chapter 10 evaluates.

When a term in the book carries operational meaning that is not in this glossary and not defined in the chapter where it appears, that is a defect. The chapter is authoritative for any term it establishes; the glossary is a reference, not a substitute.