Chapter 8
Vector
Cross-ticker gamma and flow radar — a universe screener with ranked setups, GEX ladders, wall integrity scoring, and session replay.
Overview
SPX Slayer and Thermal go deep on one ticker at a time. Vector extends the same dealer gamma exposure framework across the entire universe at once — a live screener that ranks setups so you never have to guess which name to look at next. Route: `/vector`.
The desk is one chart plus three linked rails: a GEX/VEX matrix ladder, a live HELIX flow tape, and a fused Play card with ranked option contract picks — all scoped to whichever ticker you select from the universe scanner or type into search.
Underneath the chart, a collapsible Universe scanner ranks the whole covered list by preset (nearest flip, most pinned, most explosive) — this is Vector's real differentiator: automated, whole-market ranking, not a ticker you have to pick first.
Desk layout
Four-column grid on desktop: GEX/VEX matrix ladder (left), chart (center), Live Helix flow tape (right), and a fourth column stacking the Play card, intel strip, and contract picks. Below the grid: the Universe scanner, collapsed by default.
The chart itself carries a full toolbar — timeframe, indicator menu, draw tools, replay controls, GEX/VEX lens toggle, DTE horizon (0DTE/Weekly/Monthly), node count, dark pool overlay — and an alerts bell in the top-right.
On mobile/native app shell, panels collapse into a segmented control: Chart · Plays · Helix · Matrix · Scanner — only one mounts at a time.
Panel reference
Every region below maps to a live UI panel on the desk. Read purpose first, then cadence, then how to consume — that order mirrors how you should scan the tool during RTH.
Universe scanner
Below the chart grid — collapsible
Ranks the covered ticker universe by preset so you find the setup instead of hunting for it.
What it shows
- Ticker, spot, regime (above/below flip), gamma flip + distance %, call wall + distance %, put wall + distance %
- Freshness chip — "Updated {age} ago", flips to a warning style past 10 minutes stale
What you can do
- Switch preset: All / Nearest flip / Most pinned / Most explosive
- Click a row to load that ticker across the whole desk
How to consume
Nearest flip surfaces names closest to a regime change — the most actionable list. Most pinned finds strong walls above flip (mean-revert candidates). Most explosive finds names below flip near it (vol-expansion risk). A ticker with no flip data always sorts to the bottom, never falsely ranked.
TipThe universe is a fixed ~21-name liquid list, but any ticker you open on Vector, Thermal, or HELIX gets added to tomorrow's warm set automatically — the platform learns what you actually watch.
GEX/VEX Matrix ladder
Left rail
Strike-row ladder for the active ticker's dealer gamma or vanna exposure.
What it shows
- Strike rows with exposure value and drift % vs session
- Spot row, King node (largest |GEX| on the board), call-wall and put-wall row highlighting
- As-of timestamp
What you can do
- Toggle GEX / VEX lens
- Click a strike to flash that level on the chart
- "⟳ SPOT" resets scroll to the spot row
How to consume
Scope follows the chart's DTE horizon toggle (0DTE/Weekly/Monthly). The visible strike band syncs to the chart's own zoom, so scrolling the chart moves the ladder with it.
Chart — indicators, DTE horizon, replay
Center
The core price chart with dealer-positioning and flow overlays layered on top.
What it shows
- Candles at 1/3/5/15/30/60min (default 3min)
- Indicator menu: VWAP/EMA/SMA, key levels (HOD/LOD, opening range, fib, PDH/PDL, floor pivots), market structure, RSI/MACD, confluence zones, options flow, expected-move cone, GEX heatmap overlay, gamma regime zones, volume profile
- Bead trail: dots per strike row showing wall strength/persistence over the session, with event glyphs (wall building/fading/gone, flip cross, wall break)
What you can do
- GEX / VEX lens toggle
- DTE horizon: 0DTE / Weekly / Monthly
- Replay: step, play/pause, speed 0.5×–8×, jump to open/close, loop, scrub
- "F" for focus mode (unmounts every rail, chart only)
How to consume
Defaults on: VWAP, market structure, volume profile — everything else is opt-in from the indicator menu. Replay freezes the Play card and contract picks at the last live frame with a REPLAY badge, so you can study history without the live engine reacting to stale replayed data.
TipGEX/VEX only on Vector, unlike Thermal's four lenses — Vector trades ladder depth for universe breadth.
Play card + desk intel strip
Fourth column, top
One fused trade idea per ticker — regime, magnet, proximity, confluence, and wall integrity combined into a single grade.
What it shows
- Letter grade (A–C) + conviction %, style (scalp/swing/position by DTE), bias, entry zone, targets, invalidation
- Intel strip chips: Regime (long/short gamma), Move (expected-move headline), Confluence (top zone), Wall (integrity note)
What you can do
- Open the Analytics drawer for the full evidence breakdown
How to consume
Long gamma reads fade extremes toward the magnet (range play); short gamma reads momentum toward the next wall. The card renders nothing when there's no spot yet — an absent card is honest, not a bug.
Contract Picks
Fourth column, below the Play card
Up to 3 real, buy-to-open option contracts ranked across DTE buckets — never a fabricated strike.
What it shows
- Rank, side, strike/expiry/DTE, live premium + drift % from entry
- Action-status chip: Still buy / Caution / Don't buy, plus STALE/ELITE/Primary tags
What you can do
- Click a pick to open its drawer: Desk data (cross-product evidence) and Option play (execution detail + why-ranked reasons)
How to consume
Roles span primary long/short, range fade, HELIX whale anchor, GEX king node, and magnet mean — a deeper backfill pool exists if the top picks all read Don't buy. The displayed confidence is always the Play card's own conviction number reused, never a second invented score.
Live Helix rail
Right rail
Ticker-scoped flow tape — the same institutional-flow read HELIX ships, filtered to the active symbol.
What it shows
- Recent and Top-by-premium sections, filterable ALL/CALL/PUT
- Side, strike, expiry/DTE, premium, alert time, score, WHALE pill for large prints
What you can do
- Click a card to open the shared drilldown drawer and flash that strike on the chart
- "Open full Helix tape" link to /flows
How to consume
Off-hours shows an honest empty state rather than stale prints: "Session closed — Live Helix resumes at the open."
Alerts
Bell icon, top-right of the toolbar
Per-ticker wall-touch and flip-cross alerts with anti-spam design.
What it shows
- Active alert count on the bell
- Recent-fires list (last 20, showing 4)
What you can do
- Set wall-touch tolerance % or flip-cross alert
- In-page toast + optional OS notification while the tab is backgrounded
How to consume
Alerts persist per ticker in your browser and mirror to the server best-effort — they fire while this tab is open or backgrounded, not to a fully closed tab.
How it works
One live snapshot per ticker feeds every rail — the matrix, Play card, and contract picks all read the same GEX/VEX computation family the SPX Slayer and Thermal desks use, scoped to whichever symbol is active.
Universe over single-ticker
The scanner ranks the whole covered list automatically — no manual ticker-by-ticker hunting.
Never fabricated
The Play card and contract picks render nothing rather than invent a level or a strike when data is missing.
Wall integrity, not just presence
Strength, persistence, and isolation are scored separately — a wall that just appeared reads differently from one that's held for an hour.
Confluence needs distinct kinds
Five overlapping fib lines don't count as confluence — a zone needs two or more DIFFERENT level types stacked to register.
Step-by-step workflow
Open the scanner before you open a chart — let it tell you where to look.
- 1
Scan the universe
Pick a preset (nearest flip, most pinned, most explosive) and scan the ranked list.
- 2
Select a ticker
Click a row — the whole desk loads that symbol's chart, ladder, flow, and play.
- 3
Read the Play card
Check grade, conviction, bias, and the entry/target/invalidation levels.
- 4
Cross-check the ladder
Confirm the wall levels the Play card cites against the GEX/VEX matrix.
- 5
Check contract picks
Review the ranked real contracts before sizing — watch for STALE or Don't buy tags.
- 6
Set an alert if not trading now
Wall-touch or flip-cross so you don't have to babysit the screen.
Best practices
Do
- Start from the Universe scanner, not a blank chart.
- Cross-check the Play card's levels against the GEX/VEX ladder before sizing.
- Watch for STALE tags on contract picks before trusting a live premium.
- Use replay to study a session's structure, not to trade off frozen data.
Don't
- Don't treat the scanner's ~21-name universe as the entire market — it's the liquid, covered set.
- Don't assume the Play card's conviction number and the contract pick's confidence are two independent reads — they're the same number.
- Don't expect DEX/CHARM lenses here — Vector ships GEX/VEX only; Thermal has all four.
Connected tools
BlackOut is one pipeline. These desks share the same GEX, flow, and intelligence layers.
The deep single-ticker heatmap Vector's matrix ladder summarizes.
SPX Slayer executes on SPX specifically — Vector's SPX row is one line among many.
Full flow tape for a ticker beyond what the ladder-scoped rail shows.
Ask follow-up questions about any ticker's GEX, regime, and walls.
FAQ
Vector vs Thermal — which do I open first?
Vector to find the setup across the universe; Thermal to go deep once you have a ticker. Thermal is genuinely multi-ticker too — Vector's edge is ranking all of them automatically, not that Thermal is restricted to one.
Why does the Play card sometimes show nothing?
It only renders once real spot/matrix data exists for the ticker — an absent card means data isn't ready yet, not a broken feature.
How stale can the Universe scanner get?
The underlying snapshot rebuilds every 5 minutes during RTH; the age chip turns a warning color past 10 minutes so staleness is always disclosed, never hidden.
Open Vector
Launch the live Vector desk and apply this chapter in real time.