Published
What is The GEX Heatmap (DeepGamma)?
The GEX Profile is a photograph: exposure at one moment. The heatmap is the film. It paints colored blocks on the price chart at each level: cool tones where dealers are long gamma at that price — their hedging dampens the move —, warm tones where they are short gamma — their hedging amplifies it. Color intensity gives the strength of the exposure.
What DeepCharts does better
Like the rest of DeepGamma on SPX, the heatmap is computed from Cboe participant data, so from identified market makers rather than a convention. More importantly, it renders inside the same platform as the DeepDom liquidity heatmap: you overlay two layers of context — resting liquidity in the book, and the gamma exposure that will generate obligatory flow — without juggling two pieces of software.
Using it day to day
Read it like the liquidity heatmap: what matters is how price reacts approaching a dense block, not the block itself. Filter expiration to your horizon (0 DTE for the session, longer for the week's context) and keep it in the chart background at low opacity so it doesn't drown your order flow.
Example: ES rises toward a thick warm band — a negative-gamma zone. Instead of stalling, price cuts through and accelerates: short-gamma dealers have to buy while it goes up. The same band in cool tones would have produced the opposite, a soft ceiling. Two structures that look identical, two opposite behaviours — the color is what separates them.
⚠ The trap to avoid
The trap: reading it as classic support and resistance. A dense block in positive gamma brakes; the same block in negative gamma accelerates. Confusing the two puts you exactly on the wrong side of the hedging flow.
Combine it with
Combine it with the GEX Profile (the numeric levels), the DeepDom liquidity heatmap (orders actually resting in the book) and the footprint (execution). Gamma explains why a zone reacts; the book shows what it reacts with.
FAQ
Which instruments is the GEX Heatmap available on?+
SPX only, because it requires real Cboe participant data. The other option symbols DeepGamma covers (NDX, QQQ, SPY) rely on OPRA data and a proprietary formula.
What do the colors mean?+
Cool tones mark positive GEX: dealers are long gamma and their hedging dampens moves. Warm tones mark negative GEX: their hedging amplifies moves. Intensity indicates the size of the exposure at that level.
Can it be backtested?+
Yes. DeepCharts advertises roughly nine months of granular history on this data, replayable alongside order flow — enough to check a read on past sessions rather than take it on faith.
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