S&P 500 price map

1. What the map is

Before the open, it lists the prices around the S&P 500 where price action tends to change, ordered by distance. The upper table (red) holds resistance candidates the index meets on the way up, the lower table (green) holds support candidates on the way down, and the ▶ estimated open between them is the day's starting point.

The lines come from three sources: options open interest (where options are stacked), the implied move priced into options, and chart lines such as moving averages and Ichimoku. Options data combines Unusual Whales raw data with the trading app's own calculations.

2. Reading the summary box

The five lines at the top of the map, using the September 23 values.

From this box alone: on Sep 23 the open looked about 9 points below the prior close, options were pricing a normal day at roughly 43 points either way, and the pre-market read was a damped, positive-gamma day.

3. The lines on the map

Call wall

The strike with the most call open interest. Read as resistance on the way up

Put wall

The strike with the most put open interest. Read as support on the way down

Gamma flip

The level where dealers' positioning flips between long and short gamma, so their hedging switches from damping moves to amplifying them. Moves tend to be damped above it and amplified below it

Magnet (pin)

The strike where dealer hedging is heaviest. Price tends to get pulled toward it, especially late in the day — a pull, not a direction

Implied move 1× · 1.25× · 1.63×

1× is a normal range. About 85% of past closes ended inside 1.25×, and about 90% of past intraday ranges inside 1.63×

Moving averages · Ichimoku

Average price over recent days and the Japanese trend lines (conversion 9 · base 26 · cloud)

Prior high · low

The top and bottom of recent sessions — prices many traders remember

Three markers

• 🔑 Overlap — different calculations point at nearly the same price. Forces tend to gather there, so look at these first
• 🔒 85% line — the 1.25× line. About 85% of past closes ended inside it
• 📍 Next to the open — the first line price meets once the market opens

4. The order to read it — five steps

1. Find the starting point. Is the ▶ estimated open above or below the previous close?
2. Find the nearest line above and below (📍). These get tested first. On Sep 23 the open sat in a 10-point pocket between 7,760 above (+4.3) and 7,750 below (−5.7).
3. Mark the 🔑 overlaps. On Sep 23: 7,750 below (two calculations, same put wall) and 7,775 above (call wall, pin and top magnet at one price).
4. Draw today's range with the implied move. Note the 1× and 🔒 1.25× lines so you can tell intraday when price has traveled further than usual.
5. Read the lines through the gamma regime. In positive gamma, price often bounces off lines; in negative gamma it often runs through them. I read a move below the gamma flip as a sign the regime may be changing.

5. After the close — reading the score

Every day after the close, the actual open, high, low and close go onto the same map, with three notes. Sep 23 looked like this — open · high · low · close

1. How big was the range against the implied move? 67.0 points — 78% of the 1× move (86.4). The size of the swing stayed inside the implied move.
2. Where did it close? 7,706.03 finished 4.67 points below the 🔒 1.25× line (7,710.70), outside the band where 85% of past days ended. A wide miss for the map.
3. Which lines were touched? All eight lines below the open — through the 7,750 put wall and the 7,743.44 and 7,725 gamma flips down to the 1.25× line. The 1.63× line (7,694.30) stayed 0.6 points out of reach.

The pre-market read was a damped, positive-gamma day, but once price went below the gamma flip it ran through line after line. The pre-market read is a starting point; where price sits relative to the lines keeps testing that read through the day.

6. How subscribers see it

• · Before the open — the day's map goes up on this page (around 9 a.m. Eastern)
• · After the close — the same map gets its score
• · Kept by date — tap any date in the list above to see past maps and scores
• · Access — subscribing is free; the welcome email carries the subscriber passcode. Enter it once on this page and every date stays open for 30 days