User Guide
How to read every part of Chesterfield Flow · Updated October 30, 2026
Chesterfield Flow has four pages: the Flow table, the contract card, the GEX heatmap and the Per Expiry view.
Getting started
Log in with your email. We send you a one-time login link, so you have no password to remember. After you log in, open any of these pages:
| Page | URL | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Flow | /final-table | Live options trades of $20K premium or more |
| Contract card | /flow/contract | One option contract on one day: the order, today's volume by side, and a minute chart of price and volume. Open it by clicking a symbol on the Flow page. |
| GEX heatmap | /gex | Gamma exposure by strike for SPY, SPXW, QQQ and NDXP |
| Per Expiry | /gex/dte | One column of gamma exposure for each of the next 5 expirations of one ticker |
Flow table
The Flow page lists large options trades as they print. Each row is one trade with a premium of $20K or more. Rows show the side, the Greeks, implied volatility (IV) and Vol/OI. The table fills the screen, and the page size follows the height of your window.
| Side tag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Above Ask | The trade printed above the ask price |
| Ask | The trade printed at the ask price |
| Mid | The trade printed between the bid and the ask |
| Bid | The trade printed at the bid price |
| Below Bid | The trade printed below the bid price |
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pause | Stops the table from moving. New trades wait in a queue until you resume. |
| Hide ETF | Removes ETF trades from the table |
| Manage Columns | Chooses which columns show |
| Download CSV | Saves the table as a CSV file |
| Click a symbol | Opens that trade's contract card in a new tab |
Contract card
Click a symbol in the Flow table to open the contract card in a new tab. It shows the contract from that row (one strike, one expiration, call or put) on the day the trade printed.
Left side, the order:
| Card | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Expires, DTE, Moneyness, IV | The expiration date, the days to it, how far the strike is from spot, and the trade's implied volatility |
| Order premium | The trade's premium and side. It also shows the order size against the open interest at the start of the day, and the order's share of all premium traded in this contract that day |
| Volume and Open int. | The contract's volume that day, and its open interest at the start of the day |
| Entry and Spot price | The trade price with its side tag, and the underlying price when it printed |
| Break-even | Strike plus premium for a call, strike minus premium for a put, with the distance from spot |
| Size / OI | Order size divided by open interest |
| Multi-leg volume | The share of the day's volume that traded as part of a spread, straddle, combo or other multi-leg order |
Right side, the day:
| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Bid / Mid / Ask bar | The day's volume by side, in contracts and as a share of all volume. A trade at or above the ask counts as Ask. At or below the bid counts as Bid. Between the two counts as Mid. A trade with no quote counts as Other |
| Chart | Bars show the volume each minute, colored by side, on the left axis. The blue line shows the option's last trade price each minute, on the right axis. A dashed yellow line marks the minute of the order |
| All / Single leg | All counts every trade. Single leg leaves out spreads, straddles, combos and other multi-leg trades from the side bar, the volume and the chart. The Multi-leg volume card always counts all trades |
| Compress / Full | Compress (the default) uses a square-root volume axis so small minutes stay visible next to large prints. The axis labels and the tooltip show real contract counts. Full uses a normal axis |
| Interpretation | A few sentences built from the numbers on the card. When the order is larger than the open interest at the start of the day, it says the order is likely new size. When open interest is larger, it says the order can be a close. It mentions spreads when more than 20% of the day's volume was multi-leg |
The card refreshes every 15 seconds while the market is open (Monday to Friday, 09:30 to 16:15 ET) and the trade date is today. Other days show the full day and do not refresh. The data comes from every trade in the contract that day, not only the trades of $20K or more that show in the Flow table.
GEX heatmap
The /gex page shows gamma exposure (GEX) by strike. It has panels for SPY, SPXW, QQQ and NDXP. The NDX panel can also show NQ futures points. Pick a tab to change the expiration set.
| Tab | What it shows |
|---|---|
| 0DTE | Options that expire today |
| Weekly | Expirations in the next 7 calendar days |
| 90D | Expirations over the next 90 days. This tab shows the SPX and NDX composites. |
Each panel marks four levels: Zero (the gamma flip), King (also called Max), Floor and Ceiling. It also has the spot row, the ±1σ and ±2σ rows, and the centring controls.
Per Expiry: tickers
The /gex/dte page has one column for each expiration. It shows the next 5 expirations: today and the 4 after it. Strikes are the rows. Each cell is a heatmap value. Pick a ticker with the buttons, or type any optionable ticker in the box, for example TSLA or INTC.
| Button | Options included | Refresh |
|---|---|---|
| SPX | SPX and SPXW together: the AM monthly and the PM daily options | 15 seconds |
| SPXW | PM daily options only | 3 seconds |
| NDX | NDX and NDXP together | 15 seconds |
| NDXP | PM daily options only | 3 seconds |
| QQQ | QQQ options | 3 seconds |
| SPY | SPY options | 3 seconds |
| Any other ticker | That ticker's options | 15 seconds |
Stocks do not expire every day. For a stock, the next 5 expirations can reach about two weeks out.
Per Expiry: modes
A toggle sets how each cell is weighted.
| Mode | What it counts |
|---|---|
| Carry (default) | Volume GEX plus open-interest GEX of every option that expires that day. This matches FrkFeed "with carry". |
| Volume | GEX weighted by today's traded volume |
| OI | GEX weighted by open interest |
| Look | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green cell | Positive gamma |
| Purple cell | Negative gamma |
| Cell intensity | Size of the value compared with the largest value in the same column |
M and K | Millions and thousands of dollars per index point |
A legend bar above the grid lists every mark.
Levels: King, Ceiling, Floor
The same rule applies on /gex and in each Per Expiry column. A strike exactly at spot is neither a ceiling nor a floor.
| Look | Level | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Orange outline | Ceiling | The strike with the largest absolute GEX above spot |
| Green outline | Floor | The strike with the largest absolute GEX below spot |
| Gold fill | King | The larger of the ceiling and the floor |
| Small corner triangle on the gold cell | King side | The triangle has the colour of the side the king is on |
Gamma flip
The gamma flip is the price where net GEX changes sign. On /gex it is the Zero level. In Per Expiry each column has its own flip for that expiration.
| Look | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dashed cyan line | The flip strike for that column |
Flip x under the date | The flip price |
Flip -- | No sign change near spot |
The flip is re-priced over a range of spot prices, as on /gex. When that gives no answer, the column uses the sign change between strikes.
Expected move (±1σ / ±2σ)
The sigma lines show how far the options market expects price to move. On /gex they come from today's 0DTE expected move and appear on every panel and tab. In Per Expiry each column has its own bands.
| Look | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Dotted light grey line | ±1σ. Labelled at its left end, for example +1σ 7,663.89. |
| Dotted darker grey line | ±2σ |
1σ ±x in the column header | The size of one sigma in points |
In Per Expiry, 1σ = spot × at-the-money implied volatility × √(time to that expiration's 16:00 ET close, in calendar years). It agrees closely with the straddle method (straddle divided by 0.798).
Session high and low
Per Expiry marks today's high and low of the underlying since 09:30 ET. The values come from 1-minute samples.
| Look | Meaning |
|---|---|
Pink line, H pill | Session high |
Lime line, L pill | Session low |
The H and L pills appear in the strike column and in the toolbar. Because the samples are 1 minute apart, a spike inside one minute can sit slightly beyond the line. Before 09:30 ET and on weekends there is no session high or low.
Spot, centring and keyboard
| Look or control | What it does |
|---|---|
White ▶ price pill | Marks spot. In Per Expiry it sits on the strike nearest spot, with a line across the row. |
| Center Spot toggle | Keeps spot in the middle and follows it as it moves. On by default in Per Expiry. |
| Shift+C | Centres spot once. On /gex it centres every panel. A plain c does nothing. |
Strike range
Per Expiry picks the strike range for you. The range widens from spot until it holds 95% of the ticker's GEX across the 5 expirations. It never has fewer than 10 strikes on each side, and never goes beyond ±25% of spot. The legend shows Range lo–hi · NN% of GEX.
Updates, refresh rates and troubleshooting
| Data | Refresh |
|---|---|
| Contract card | Every 15 seconds while the market is open and the trade date is today |
| Per Expiry: SPXW, NDXP, QQQ, SPY | Every 3 seconds |
| Per Expiry: other tickers and the SPX and NDX composites | Every 15 seconds. The server computes them on demand and reuses the result for 30 seconds. |
After the 16:00 ET close, today's column stays on screen until the trade date rolls at 18:00 ET.
Troubleshooting
- No session high or low: it is before 09:30 ET or it is a weekend. The lines return when the market opens.
- Flip shows
Flip --: that expiration has no sign change near spot. - A stock shows expirations about two weeks out: stocks do not expire every day, so the next 5 expirations span more days.
- A custom ticker updates slowly: other tickers refresh every 15 seconds.
- Spot is off screen: press Shift+C, or turn on Center Spot.
- The Flow table does not move: Pause may be on. Resume to see the queued trades.
Chesterfield Flow is a market data tool, not investment advice.
From the same team: FRK Levels for TradingView (GEX and FRK levels on your own chart)