Reading the market regime before prices move
Reading the market regime before prices move
Every number here is computed from the traded UNH options chain. The call wall is where dealer hedging accumulates above spot and caps upside, the put wall is its mirror below, and the gamma flip is the level where hedging stops damping moves and starts amplifying them.
| Strike | Calls | Puts | Today's volume | Skew |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 382.50 | 7 | 1,559 | 200 | Put |
| 385.00 | 139 | 2,933 | 643 | Put |
| 387.50 | 72 | 315 | 451 | Put |
| 390.00 | 3,687 | 6,149 | 1,068 | Put |
| 392.50 | 154 | 540 | 240 | Put |
| 395.00 | 581 | 703 | 2,095 | Put |
| 397.50 | 461 | 651 | 456 | Put |
| 400.00 | 9,255 | 7,161 | 1,677 | Call |
| 402.50 | 513 | 67 | 211 | Call |
| 405.00 | 1,112 | 250 | 585 | Call |
| 407.50 | 598 | 28 | 275 | Call |
| 410.00 | 6,835 | 2,522 | 1,631 | Call |
| Day | Price | Gamma flip | Call wall | Put wall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-10 | 408.71 | 399.46 | 420.00 | 400.00 |
| 2026-08-11 | 403.01 | 399.73 | 420.00 | 400.00 |
| 2026-08-12 | 406.84 | 401.58 | 420.00 | 400.00 |
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Max pain strike | 400.00 |
| Put/Call ratio · today's volume | 0.87 |
| Put/Call ratio · open interest | 1.63 |
| 0DTE gamma flip | 399.69 |
| 0DTE contracts in chain | 168 |
| Total contracts read | 776 |
Price 397.14 is under the gamma flip 399.30 by 0.54%. Positioning is negative: dealer hedging runs **with** the move rather than against it, so jumps become wider and reversals sharper. Sessions in this state move more than the size of the news would suggest. Price is pinned to the call wall at 400.00: breaking above it forces buy-side hedging that accelerates the move up, while rejection from it is the more frequent outcome.
أكبرُ تجمّعٍ لعقود الشراء عند 400.00 (0.72% from price)، ولعقود البيع عند 370.00 (-6.83% from price)، والمسافةُ بينهما 8.11٪، a **wide** range. That does not imply a move is coming, only that the walls are far enough apart not to confine UNH during the session, so flow leads rather than hedging.
صافي تعرّض الغاما لـUNH يبلغ −25.87 مليون، وهو حجمٌ محدود. Hedging for a 1% move is about 65,135 shares. In this range hedging stays secondary to the stock's own flow, so the levels below should not be asked to carry more than they can.
and this reading is built on 776 contracts in the chain.
Over the last 27 days of tracking (298 archived snapshots), UNH stayed above the gamma flip in 56% of readings، وتنقّلت نقطةُ الانقلاب نفسُها بين 390.89 و402.85، أي بنطاق 3.06٪، وهو ما يعني أنّ the level moves with the market and does not serve as a fixed reference across days، and net exposure today is above the period average (−1.85 مليون).
