The FirmTape guide

The terminal, free on every finished day#

Why: the terminal itself is the free archive: the walls, the flip, the levels of interest and the ladder of the last finished day, with nothing to sign up for. Where: firmtape.com; the wordmark under the logo reads replay. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open firmtape.com: the chart opens on the newest finished session.
2. Scrub the playback bar to any minute; every level follows the cursor.
3. Press LIVE at the top left to switch to today's session (the LIVE plan).

How to read it:

• Every line is named at its left end and plated on the price scale, so the chart reads without a legend.
• Green is a positive-gamma strike, red a negative one, amber the zero-gamma flip; none of them says direction.

Limits: SPX carries all three books on every session; tickers beyond SPX start in September 2026.

Related: LIVE: The chart at a glance · LIVE: LIVE and REPLAY · REPLAY: The playback bar

The session archive and session pages#

Why: one line and one page per trading day, with the levels it closed at, ready to open in the replay. Where: firmtape.com/sessions; each day at /session/<date>. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /sessions: every finished session, newest first.
2. Read the line under a day: where SPX closed against the zero-gamma flip and how often the flip was crossed.
3. Narrow the list with the event chips (FOMC, CPI, NFP, opex and more), or open the screener for what the book did.
4. Open a day's page for its numbers: open, close, range, VWAP, the flip, call resistance, put support, 0DTE ATM IV and the regime at the close.
5. Press the replay link on that page to open the session minute by minute in the terminal.

What it measures: A session page carries the volume book's day levels, read at 15:45 ET, how many times price crossed the flip, the tape's completeness, the day's scheduled events with what the book did after each, and the minutes that moved the tape.

How to read it:

• The flip and walls on a session page are the day levels, read at 15:45 ET; the replay shows them minute by minute.
• Closing above or below the flip is a fact about the close, not a forecast of the next session.

Limits: Only finished sessions are listed. Today's levels, fifteen minutes behind, are on /now.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/replay

Related: The session archive and session pages, the full page · REPLAY: The session screener · REPLAY: Sessions by event · REPLAY: The week page · REPLAY: Now: today's levels, delayed

The session calendar#

Why: a month grid of every session, with the scheduled events marked, one click from the chart. Where: the date button at the left of the playback bar. Plan: Free on every finished session.

1. Click the date on the playback bar.
2. Days with a session are in bold; a dot marks a scheduled event, amber for high impact.
3. Click a day to open it; the arrows page months and the date field takes a typed date.
4. TODAY returns to the newest session.

How to read it:

• A grey day had no session: a weekend, a holiday, or a day not finished yet.

Limits: The calendar opens SPX days; a ticker's history starts the day it was added.

Related: REPLAY: The playback bar · REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse

Sessions by event#

Why: every FOMC, CPI, payrolls or opex day in one list, with the release's measured effect on the tape. Where: the event chips on /sessions, or /sessions/fomc, /sessions/cpi and the rest. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /sessions and pick an event chip, for example FOMC.
2. Read the header: the measured effect of the release on the window after it, against the tape's own volatility, and what the volume book did on those days.
3. Each row gives the session, the event time, the prints against the forecast and the move; the date opens the session page and its replay.

What it measures: The window after the release on event days against the same window on every other archived day, so the header says how much bigger the move ran, not which way.

How to read it:

• The move column is the signed change in index points after the release; it is a record, not a forecast.

Limits: Event kinds include FOMC, CPI, NFP, PCE, PPI, GDP, retail sales, JOLTS, ISM, claims, auctions, Fed speakers, opex, VIX settlement and more. A kind with few days says so in its count.

Related: REPLAY: The session archive and session pages · REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse · REPLAY: The session screener

The week page#

Why: five sessions side by side, with the flip at each close and what the week's events did. Where: firmtape.com/week for the last full week; earlier weeks are one link back. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /week for the last full week.
2. Read each day's open, close, change, range, close to close, the flip read at 15:45 ET with its crossings, and the gamma at the close.
3. Read the summary under it: points moved, total range, the flip's drift and the sessions that closed in positive gamma.
4. Use the link at the top for the previous week; every week has its own address.

How to read it:

• The flip's drift across the week is where the book's balance point moved, not where price will go.

Limits: Weeks are listed from April 2026.

Related: REPLAY: The session archive and session pages · REPLAY: Sessions by event

The session screener#

Why: test a hunch on the whole archive in seconds, before a backtest and before opening a single replay. Where: firmtape.com/screener and its question pages. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /screener and set the filters: regime at the open and at the close, flip crossings, direction and size of the move, the net-gamma percentile at the close, 0DTE ATM IV at the open, the event and the weekday.
2. Press Screen. The count and the share closing above the flip are shown against the whole archive.
3. Read the table of matching sessions; each date opens its session page and replay.
4. Press JSON for the same result as data.
5. Or start from a question page, such as days that moved 1% or more, and adjust any filter from there.

What it measures: Every filter reads a closing measurement the session pages print. The shares are counts over the matched days next to the same counts over the whole archive.

How to read it:

• A share that matches the archive's own is a base rate, not a pattern.
• A count is a description of past sessions; it says nothing about the next one.

Limits: The screener filters SPX sessions. To test a rule with entries and exits, use LAB.

Related: LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages · REPLAY: Sessions by event

The tape's receipt#

Why: each session's own record of how much of the tape arrived, so a replay is read with its completeness in view. Where: firmtape.com/status. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /status.
2. The header says whether a session is running and how fresh the ticker books are.
3. Read the table: one row per session over the last sixty, with the share of the session the archive carries.

How to read it:

• A full bar means the session's minutes are all in the archive.

Limits: The receipt covers the last sixty sessions.

Related: REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

The playback bar#

Why: the bar under the chart moves the minute on screen, and every level and readout follows it. Where: the bar under the chart; the keys below work anywhere on the terminal. Plan: Free on every finished session; the same bar works in LIVE.

1. Press play and pick a speed, from the session's own pace (1×) up to an hour a second.
2. Drag the scrubber to any minute; the clock on the right names it.
3. The inner arrows step one candle; the outer buttons jump to the open and the close.
4. Read the ticks on the scrubber: scheduled releases, the minutes that moved the tape, and your notes.
5. The fold button turns the bar into a chip on the status line.

Stepping by hand pauses playback: having picked a moment, you did not ask to be moved off it a tick later.

Limits: The scrubber is coarse for a specific minute; use the keys, or open a link with ?t=HH:MM.

Related: REPLAY: The session calendar · REPLAY: Share a link to a view · LIVE: Would-be fires on a replay

Share a link to a view#

Why: a link that opens the same session, symbol, book, layers and minute, and leaves the other person's own toolbar alone. Where: the share icon at the top right of the terminal; the camera beside it saves an image. Plan: Free on every finished session; works in LIVE without the minute.

1. Press the share icon: a link to the session, the symbol, the book, the layers that are on and the cursor's minute is copied.
2. Paste it anywhere; whoever opens it lands on the same picture.
3. Press the camera icon to save the terminal as an image at twice the screen's pixels; shift-click saves the chart alone at three times.

A session lives at /replay/2026-08-28, and the query string says how it should open. Nothing is remembered: a link shows someone else's chart and leaves your own toolbar as you left it. To compose one by hand:

/replay/2026-08-28?book=measured&levels=lad,lines&t=15:40 opens the measured book with the ladder and lines only, parked on the last twenty minutes.

Limits: A LIVE link carries no minute: the stream is wherever it has got to when the link is opened.

Related: LIVE: Notes on a minute · ORDERS: A link that opens ORDERS · LIVE: Chart layouts

Daily replay clips#

Why: a short video of the day's replay with its levels, for when watching is quicker than scrubbing. Where: youtube.com/@firmtape; the explainers are also embedded on the Learn pages. Plan: Free.

1. Open the channel for the daily clip of the last finished session.
2. Open the session in the terminal to stop at any minute the clip passes.

Limits: A clip is a recording; the replay is where every level and readout can be read at any minute.

Related: REPLAY: The terminal, free on every finished day · REPLAY: Learn the terms

Most active SPX options#

Why: the day's most traded contracts as a page you can read, quote and link, without opening the terminal. Where: /spx/most-active-options, one page per finished session. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /spx/most-active-options for the newest finished session and the list of every day with a page.
2. Read the sentence at the top: the day's most traded SPX option, written to be quoted.
3. Read the four tables of ten contracts each: by volume, by premium, by open interest and by volume over open interest, with the expiry, the days to expiry and the share of volume inside multi-leg orders.
4. Read the structure mix of the most traded contract: how much of it traded alone and how much inside verticals, condors and the other shapes.
5. Step to the session before or after, or open the day in the terminal for the full contract boards and a card per contract.

What it measures: The 1D contract boards of the session cut to ten rows, counted from the options tape after the close. Volume over open interest is the day's volume over the morning's open interest.

How to read it:

• A high Vol/OI says the day's trading was large against the positions that existed; it does not say whether they were opened or closed.
• Counts only: no price target, and no side of any print is read.

Limits: Finished sessions only; today never has a page, whatever the clock says. A day without the evening's contract file has no page.

Related: ORDERS: Contract boards · ORDERS: The contract card · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Expiration calendar#

Why: every expiry-class date ahead, by rule, and the measured share of dealer gamma that left the book on the last session. Where: /expiry, also linked from the market calendar. Plan: Free, no account.

1. Open /expiry and read The dates ahead: monthly and quarterly options, the ES and NQ futures expiry and roll, month-end and quarter-end SPX, the January LEAPS cycle, and the days on which they coincide.
2. Read How much gamma expired, by symbol: each symbol's share of its book that expired on its last session, with a mark at what is usual for that weekday.
3. Read the SPX strip of recent sessions; a bar opens that session in the terminal.

What it measures: The share is the unsigned dealer gamma of the contracts that expire on the day over the unsigned gamma of every expiry inside the book's reach (120 days since 2026-09-26, 45 before), near the money, read at 10:00 ET. The usual mark is the median of the symbol's earlier sessions on the same weekday.

How to read it:

• Amber marks a day at least half again above the symbol's usual share.
• The share says how much of the book is about to disappear, not what price does afterwards; each symbol is compared with its own history only.

Limits: Dates are rules, so they are known years ahead; a third Friday that is a market holiday moves to the Thursday. The by-symbol history starts in September 2026.

Related: REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse · REPLAY: Gamma by symbol · REPLAY: Sessions by event

Now: today's levels, delayed#

Why: the current reading, free, for anyone without the live stream. Where: firmtape.com/now. Plan: Free; the undelayed stream is LIVE.

1. Open /now during the session for the reading at least fifteen minutes behind, stamped with its own time; when the market is shut it shows the last session's levels, read at 15:45 ET.
2. Read the title line for the flip and both walls, then the distance from the flip, the regime and the gamma percentile for the minute.
3. Read the next calendar event with what usually followed, and the ES, NQ and RTY levels.

How to read it:

• The gamma percentile ranks net gamma against the same minute of the prior 20 sessions.
• Positive gamma on the volume book is a position, not a forecast.

Related: REPLAY: ES, NQ and RTY levels · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Market calendar and pulse#

Why: what is scheduled, what usually followed it, and which minutes moved the tape today. Where: the calendar and pulse icons in the top bar; the public calendar at /calendar. Plan: Free.

1. Click the calendar icon for the week: FOMC, CPI, NFP, PCE, ISM, opex and the rest, with actual, forecast and prior.
2. Click the pulse icon for the session's tape-confirmed minutes with their tag and the move 5 and 15 minutes after each; a click seeks the scrubber five minutes before the minute.
3. On /calendar, read this week and next with what usually followed each kind of release across the archive; subscribe by webcal or read it as JSON.

How to read it:

• "What usually followed" is a measurement over the archive, not a forecast for this release.

Related: LIVE: ±σ band and event marks · REPLAY: Sessions by event

Learn the terms#

Why: the concepts behind the terminal, in plain language, with what they do not mean. Where: /learn, and this guide's glossary; every guide on one page at /guide. Plan: Free.

1. Open /learn for gamma exposure, the zero-gamma flip, call and put walls, vanna and charm, reading a gamma chart, 0DTE, open interest against volume, skew, and ES and NQ levels.
2. Read an article: a boxed definition, a short video on a real session, then how to read it on the chart.
3. Open /guide to read every product guide on one page.

Related: LIVE: The three books · Zero-gamma flip

MCP server#

Why: ask your assistant about dealer positioning and get answers built on measurements, not on what it remembers. Where: the address and the connect steps are on MCP. Plan: Free tools need no account and no key; LAB tools need a sign-in or a Lab token and spend LAB credits.

1. Add the server's address from MCP to your assistant as a remote MCP server.
2. Ask about a session, a level or a week: the assistant calls the free tools.
3. To backtest from the assistant, sign in when it asks, or give it a Lab token.

What it measures: Only derived per-session measurements cross the interface, one session per call: the levels, the regime, the percentiles and the events. Nothing on it is a trade call.

How to read it:

• A ticker's book comes from five-minute chain snapshots with a trust grade; it is not a tape-signed book.

Limits: One session per call. LAB tools spend the same credits as the terminal. The tool list and the connect steps for each assistant are on MCP.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/mcp

Related: MCP server, the full page · REPLAY: Pages for AI assistants · LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Pages for AI assistants#

Why: an assistant that cites the right page and the right number instead of guessing. Where: For AI agents, llms.txt and the Markdown copy of every features and docs page. Plan: Free.

1. Give an assistant /for-ai-agents: what FirmTape provides, how to reach it, and what to say about it.
2. For a crawler, /llms.txt summarises the site and /llms-full.txt carries more.
3. Add .md to any features or docs address for its Markdown copy; /docs/llms.txt lists them all.

How to read it:

• The pages state the date their facts were checked.

Limits: They describe the product; the numbers themselves come from the MCP server and the pages it links.

Related: REPLAY: MCP server

Gamma by symbol#

Why: the flip, the walls and net gamma for QQQ, SPY, sector ETFs and the most traded stocks, free. Where: Symbols, and one page per ticker at /gex/<symbol>. Plan: Free on the site; on the LIVE chart every five minutes through the session.

1. Open Symbols. The top box gives the ES, NQ and RTY levels.
2. Sort by size against the symbol's own turnover, net gamma in dollars, distance to the flip or prints a second; filter to index, ETF or stock.
3. Open a row for its symbol page.
4. On the page, read the tiles, the session chart, gamma by strike in both books and the per-expiry table out to 120 days; a link replays the symbol in the terminal.

What it measures: Each ticker's book is built from a snapshot of its whole option chain every five minutes: spot from put-call parity, the volume and open-interest books, the flip and the walls. Net gamma is scaled by the symbol's own option turnover so a stock and an index can share one scale.

How to read it:

• The trust grade says how much of the book the chain supports.
• "Above the flip" is a position against the level, not a forecast.
• The data-as-of stamp says how old the reading is.

Limits: No measured book for tickers (it needs the signed tape), no hold band. A ticker's history starts the day it was added, in September 2026.

Related: LIVE: Symbol picker · REPLAY: ES, NQ and RTY levels · LIVE: Levels API

ES, NQ and RTY levels#

Why: the dealer levels in the points you chart, if you trade the E-mini rather than the index. Where: ES, NQ and RTY; the micros trade the same prices. Plan: Free at least fifteen minutes late, or the last close; every second on the LIVE chart.

1. Open ES, NQ or RTY.
2. Read the price, the flip, call resistance and put support in the future's points beside the index's.
3. Read the basis line: the contract, the basis and the time it was read.
4. Press the button to open the same view in the live terminal.

What it measures: The index's volume book moved by the day's basis: the future minus the index, measured from put-call parity on the index's own quarterly options, so no futures exchange data is used. Only prices move; the regime and every size are the index book's own.

How to read it:

• MES and MNQ trade at the same prices as ES and NQ.
• When no basis was measured for the day, the page says so and shows the index levels in index points.

Limits: Regular session only. YM is not offered: its basis cannot be measured cleanly.

Related: LIVE: Futures views: ES, NQ, RTY, GC, SI, ZB, CL · REPLAY: Gamma by symbol · ES and NQ levels

The chart at a glance#

Why: one screen where price and the dealer book share a scale, so every level sits where price can meet it. Where: firmtape.com, the terminal itself. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Open firmtape.com: a finished session opens in REPLAY; press LIVE while the market trades.
2. Read the top bar for modes and tools, the chart bar under it for the symbol, the header chip and the switches.
3. Read each line by its name at the left end and its plate on the price scale.

How to read it:

• Green lines are positive-gamma strikes, red negative, amber the flip; the chips name the book.
• The playback bar sits at the bottom on every session.

Related: LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: Ladder columns · REPLAY: The playback bar

LIVE and REPLAY#

Why: one chart for both: today as it trades, and any finished day to study. Where: LIVE and REPLAY at the top left; the wordmark under the logo says which one you are in. Plan: LIVE needs the LIVE plan; REPLAY is free for every finished session.

1. Press LIVE to follow today's session, once a second.
2. Press REPLAY to open a finished day; the date on the playback bar opens any other.

How to read it:

• Outside market hours LIVE shows waiting for the session on the status line with the clock in New York time.

Related: REPLAY: The playback bar · REPLAY: The session calendar

Candles, period and candle type#

Why: the price in the form you read best, on a period that suits the zoom. Where: the candle button and the period chip on the chart bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click the candle button for the type: Candles, Bars, Volume candles, Heikin-Ashi or Line, and a colour scheme.
2. Click the period chip to step through 5s, 15s, 1m, 2m, 5m and 15m; AUTO lets the zoom choose.
3. Read the 1s chip beside the symbol: on a per-second day price moves every second.

Related: LIVE: Chart navigation

Chart navigation#

Why: look closer at one stretch of the day without losing your way back. Where: the chart itself; the small panel at the bottom right while the view is set by hand. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Scroll to zoom in time, drag to pan.
2. Drag the price scale to stretch prices.
3. Use the small panel (Price, Time, Ladder, Move, Reset) that appears while the view is set by hand.
4. Double-click the chart, or press Reset, to go back to auto. Dragged handles such as the ladder width stay.

Related: LIVE: Candles, period and candle type · LIVE: Ladder columns

Ladder columns#

Why: the whole shape of the book, strike by strike, level with the price it belongs to. Where: the columns between the plot and the price scale; LADDER on the chart bar turns them on, dims or hides them. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click a column's head (for example VOL NET GEX ALL) to open its card.
2. Pick the book: VOL, OI or MEAS; the expiry: ALL, 0DTE or NEXT.
3. Pick the metric: NET GEX, DEX, VEX, ABS GEX, or the contract counts NET OI, TOTAL OI, NET VOL, TOTAL VOL.
4. Pick the flow window (NOW, 5m, 15m, 30m, OPEN), the look (BARS or HEAT) and whether its walls draw as LINES and BANDS.
5. Add a column with + on a head, remove one with x; drag a column's left edge to widen or narrow its bars.

What it measures: Each row is one strike, level with its price. The figure on a row is the gamma on that strike in dollars per point; the bar's length is its size against the column's largest.

How to read it:

• Green bars are positive gamma, red negative.
• HEAT shows where the book clusters at a glance; BARS is better for comparing two strikes.
• A heavy bar near price is concentration, not a direction.

Limits: Tickers have the VOL and OI books only, and no DEX or VEX: those need a signed position.

Related: LIVE: The three books · LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: PANELS

The three books#

Why: the same session read three ways, and where they disagree is information. Where: a ladder column's head card, and LAYERS > LEVELS OF for the lines. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

The per-book readouts (flip, walls, net gamma, distance to the flip), the regime, the gamma percentile and the flow of gamma are in READOUTS and are LAB columns too, each named for its book: flip_vol_dist, call_wall_vol_dist, gamma_pctl_vol and their _meas and _oi twins.

How to read it:

• An unqualified level means the volume book.
• Two books on one line agree on that price; a level in one book only is that book's view.

Related: LIVE: Ladder columns · LIVE: READOUTS drawer · LAB: The LAB vocabulary

Header chip and REGIME#

Why: the three numbers that frame the minute, without opening anything. Where: the chip beside the symbol on the chart bar; REGIME on the right of the chart bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Read EM: the share of the opening expected move already used.
2. Read REG: POS, NEG, SPLIT or AT FLIP, price against each book's flip.
3. Read Δ: the largest 30-minute change in the book.
4. Click the chip to open READOUTS; press REGIME for a thin strip at the plot's right edge, green above the chart book's flip and red below.

How to read it:

• SPLIT means the books disagree about the regime.
• A regime is a position, not a forecast.

Related: LIVE: READOUTS drawer · LIVE: The expected move

The expected move#

Why: the one reading on this screen that has held up: the market's own price for the session's move. Where: the EM chip beside the ticker and section 01 of READOUTS. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Read used so far: how much of the move priced at the open the day has already travelled, in either direction.
2. Read left to close: the expected move from here to the close, off the current straddle.
3. Read the close bands: where the close lands on most days, from the straddle.

What it measures: The ATM 0DTE straddle, doubled to a range. Over 1,088 sessions it is calibrated: the close lands inside one expected move 72.4% of the time, and as a variance forecast it is unbiased (E[z²] 1.03). In LAB: em_used.

How to read it:

• Take the expected move as the day's span and size against it: twice as wide as usual means half the position for the same risk, or a stop twice as far.
• Past 100%, expect the tape to keep moving and go less far: smaller targets rather than a chase.
• Every number is about magnitude, never about which way.

Limits: SPX only: the other tickers have no straddle here. It follows the cursor, the day and the symbol, not the book switches: the straddle is the market's price, not one of our books. Our own gamma-based forecast of the move added nothing to the straddle (t +0.03 against +3.54).

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/expected-move

Related: LIVE: READOUTS drawer · LIVE: Header chip and REGIME · Expected move calibration

READOUTS drawer#

Why: the expected move, flow by strike, the regime in three books and the vol, read at the cursor. Where: the READOUTS tab on the chart's left edge, or a click on the header chip. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Open READOUTS and pick the book at the top: VOL, OI or MEAS.
2. 01 Expected move: the share used, the move left to close, the close ranges and the median close.
3. 02 Flow by strike: the strikes where gamma was added or shed over 5, 15 or 30 minutes.
4. 03 Regime: spot against each book's flip, and the distance to the flip through the day.
5. Further sections: reach (touch and close odds for the call wall, flip and put wall), the book's largest change, ATM IV and skew, and how much of the book expires today.

What it measures: ATM IV at the foot of the expected move is the vol the market is charging. It climbs about threefold from the open to the close on a 0DTE, so its 30-minute change mostly reads the clock and is no longer shown. In LAB: atm_iv, atm_iv_chg30.

How to read it:

• "Gamma added" and "gamma shed" describe the book, not anyone's trade.
• Touch odds are frequencies from the archive at the same distance, not a forecast for today.

Limits: Each section reads the minute under the cursor. A ticker shows the sections its five-minute book can fill.

Related: LIVE: The expected move · LIVE: The three books · LIVE: Header chip and REGIME

Walls and levels#

Why: the strikes the book leans on, drawn where price can meet them, each with its weight. Where: the chart bar switches WALLS, LEVELS and BANDS; which books draw is LAYERS > LEVELS OF. Plan: LIVE for today's session; free on every finished session.

1. Turn on WALLS to draw each book's call wall and put wall with its chip and price tag (CW 7810).
2. Turn on LEVELS to add the levels of interest: strikes that keep standing out in the VOL and OI books, ranked C1, C2, P1, P2.
3. In LAYERS > LEVELS OF, pick one, two or three books. Where two books agree on a price, their chips sit side by side on one line.
4. Turn on BANDS to paint each wall over the strike interval it owns.
5. Set the levels filter to hide levels holding less than a share of the strongest; 8 to 20% is the useful range, 0 shows everything.

What it measures: A wall is the major positive or negative gamma strike of a book; width is that strike's share of the near-money gamma in the window. A level of interest is a strike that has stood out for a while and stays for the day once it has held.

How to read it:

• Colour is the kind of level, never the book: green the major positive-gamma strike, red the major negative, amber the zero-gamma flip. The book is named on the chip.
• Width is weight: a fat line is a heavy wall, a thin one a level the book barely carries.
• Fade is distance: a level about forty points away draws at roughly a quarter strength.
• OI standouts at the open (yesterday's positions) are levels from the first minute; the rest appear once their strike has held up, and a short tick marks when.
• None of it says direction. Concentrated hedging holds price on a positive-gamma strike and speeds it away from a negative one.

Limits: Whether price is drawn to strength has not been measured here; it is an open idea, not a claim. Walls, levels and session levels that meet on one price share a line and one price-scale plate (CW·C2·PDC 7620).

Related: Walls and levels, the full page · LIVE: Level card · LIVE: Session levels · LIVE: TRAIL · LIVE: Alert lines · Call wall

Level card#

Why: weigh a level before you lean on it. Where: click a level's chips at the left edge of the chart. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click the chips of a wall or level.
2. Read the distance from spot in points and in expected moves.
3. Read the gamma on the strike, its share of the window, how often a level at that distance is touched by the close, and since when it has stood.
4. Read the same kind of level in the other two books at the foot.

How to read it:

• "Touched by close" is how often a level at that distance was reached by the close in the archive, not a forecast for this one.

Related: LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: The expected move

Session levels#

Why: the reference prices of the sessions around the one on screen, joined with the dealer levels where they meet. Where: LAYERS > SESSION: PD, OR, PM, ON, WEEK, MONTH. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session (PM and ON in LIVE only).

1. Open LAYERS in the chart's header. The SESSION row has six switches, all off until you turn them on; the chart remembers your choice.
2. PD: the prior day's high, low and close (PDH, PDL, PDC).
3. OR: the opening range, 09:30 to 10:00 ET (ORH, ORL), dim while it forms and final from 10:00.
4. PM: the premarket high and low, 04:00 to 09:30 ET (PMH, PML), in LIVE where the premarket is on the chart.
5. ON: the overnight high and low, 20:00 ET the evening before to 09:30 (ONH, ONL), the premarket included, in LIVE where the night has prints.
6. WEEK: the prior calendar week's high and low (PWH, PWL); MONTH: the month's high and low to date (MTDH, MTDL).

What it measures: Session levels come from prices, not from a book. The prior day's high and low are read from that session's per-second prices, so a high the replay of that day reached is the high on the line. Week and month come from the finished sessions before the day on screen; the month adds the day itself up to the cursor. Before the open the premarket chart draws them too: today's prior day, week and month, with PM and ON growing as the premarket prints.

How to read it:

• Each group has its own colour, a badge at the line's left end and a plate on the price scale. A price crossing a session level flashes it.
• When a session level lands on a wall or a level of interest they share one line and one plate naming every member, such as CW·C2·PDC 7620. The strongest kind draws the line: a wall, then a level of interest, then a session level.
• A replay draws them as they stood at its cursor.

Limits: PM is LIVE only: a replay has no premarket on its chart. On ES, NQ and RTY every session level is moved by the day's basis, the same way the view moves its dealer levels.

Related: Session levels, the full page · LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: PREMARKET · LIVE: LAYERS

TRAIL#

Why: which strikes the book kept rebuilding, and which were left after one touch. Where: TRAIL on the chart bar (on, dim, off). Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press TRAIL once for on, again for dim, again for off.
2. Read the hatched trail behind each level: thick where the book carried the strike, gaps where it did not.

Limits: TRAIL needs the per-second grid; on a day without one it offers to build it.

Related: LIVE: Walls and levels

±σ band and event marks#

Why: the session's own stretch around its VWAP, and the releases that moved it. Where: ±σ on the chart bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press ±σ to draw the session VWAP with one, two and three standard deviations of the session's prices.
2. Point at a short tick on a 1σ edge to read the release it marks, for example 14:00 FOMC decision.

How to read it:

• The band measures the session's own prices, not the book.

Related: REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse

LAYERS#

Why: one place for everything drawn over the candles. Where: LAYERS on the chart bar; the number on it counts what is on. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click LAYERS.
2. Pick rows: SESSION, LEVELS OF, OVERLAYS, HEATMAP, INDICATORS, RESEARCH, ORDERS.
3. Point at any button for what it draws.

Related: LIVE: Session levels · LIVE: Heatmap: GAMMA, VANNA, CHARM · ORDERS: Orders on the chart

Heatmap: GAMMA, VANNA, CHARM#

Why: the whole session's book in one picture: where gamma sat, and how it moved, minute by minute. Where: LAYERS > HEATMAP: GAMMA, VANNA or CHARM, one at a time. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Open LAYERS and pick GAMMA in the HEATMAP row.
2. Read the colour behind each candle: one side of the legend for positive, the other for negative, brighter for more.
3. Switch to VANNA to see how hedges move with implied vol, or CHARM for how they move with time to expiry.
4. Turn walls and levels on with it to see which bright regions became levels.

What it measures: Each cell is one strike at one minute, coloured by that greek's dealer exposure in the volume book's frames. The legend at the bottom right gives the sign of each colour.

How to read it:

• Bright bands that persist are strikes the book carried all day; short flashes are flow that came and went.
• Price moving from one colour into the other is crossing between gamma regions, not a forecast.

Limits: One heatmap at a time. Tickers draw vanna and charm from the volume and open-interest books.

Related: Heatmap: GAMMA, VANNA, CHARM, the full page · LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: TRAIL · LIVE: The three books · Vanna and charm

VOL DOTS and VOL BARS#

Why: where the session's traded volume landed. Where: LAYERS > OVERLAYS. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. VOL DOTS marks candles whose 0DTE volume is in the top tenth of the window.
2. VOL BARS draws contracts per candle under the chart, the busiest bars brightened.

How to read it:

• Volume says how much traded, never which side.

Related: LIVE: CVD · LIVE: ΔΓ overlay

ΔΓ overlay#

Why: candle by candle, how the measured flow changed the book. Where: LAYERS > OVERLAYS > ΔΓ. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press ΔΓ once for a strip of bars under the chart (green added, red shed).
2. Press again to write the number beside each candle; again for off.

What it measures: Net dealer gamma put on while each candle formed, in the measured flow book, in $M.

Related: LIVE: READOUTS drawer · LIVE: The three books

SMILE#

Why: the volatility smile on the same strikes as the book. Where: LAYERS > OVERLAYS > SMILE. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Turn on SMILE.
2. Read the dots at the right of the plot: each strike's implied vol, red for puts below spot, green for calls above, with the range written at the top.

Related: LIVE: READOUTS drawer

CVD#

Why: how the session's 0DTE volume split between calls and puts, totalled from the open. Where: LAYERS > INDICATORS > CVD. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Turn on CVD: a band opens under the chart.
2. Pick the expiry scope on its right: ALL, 0DTE or NEXT.
3. Pick CT for contracts, and CVD or BARS for the style; the x closes it.

What it measures: Cumulative volume delta: call contracts minus put contracts per bar, totalled from the open.

How to read it:

• Calls minus puts counts contracts by right, not by side: a call can be opened or closed by anyone.

Related: LIVE: VOL DOTS and VOL BARS

Research overlays: RV/IV and 25Δ·HI#

Why: the strongest relationship in the whole study, drawn as it happens. Where: LAYERS > RESEARCH. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Turn on RV/IV: a strip under the chart of trailing realised range over implied range, at 15, 30 or 60 minutes.
2. Read 1.00 as the market having priced the move exactly; above 1 it underpriced, below 1 it overpriced.
3. 25Δ·HI marks with a violet dot the candle where 25-delta skew reached the top tenth of the session so far, and shades the 30 minutes after it.

What it measures: Realised over implied is the strongest relationship in the study (coefficient +0.49, day-clustered t +12.8, deciles running 0.70 to 1.35).

How to read it:

• It does not pay on its own. The naked round trip fails because implied vol moves against you by almost exactly as much as you gain: at 60 minutes the underlying leg runs from minus $213 to plus $324 across deciles while the IV leg runs from plus $115 to minus $130. Hedging removes delta, not vega.

Limits: Research layers: measurements to test in LAB, not rules.

Related: LIVE: The expected move · LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest

FORWARD#

Why: how the current book reprices toward the close, drawn beside the price. Where: FORWARD on the chart bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press FORWARD.
2. Read the cone: one expected move to each checkpoint.
3. Read the heavy strikes with their share of the near-money window.
4. Read the white path, labelled model, not a forecast.

What it measures: The book on screen repriced at future clocks: the volume book carried to the close over eleven checkpoints. The band shows the strikes still loaded.

How to read it:

• The path is a model of the book carried forward, not a forecast of price.

Related: LIVE: The expected move · LIVE: COMPARE

COMPARE#

Why: how other symbols' books carry forward, side by side on one scale. Where: COMPARE on the chart bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press COMPARE, type or pick a symbol and press enter.
2. Each one appears under SELECTED with its colour and a Remove button.
3. The paths draw over FORWARD, each as a percentage of its own spot; the count shows on the button.

Related: LIVE: FORWARD · LIVE: Symbol picker

PREMARKET#

Why: the market's position against yesterday's flip and walls before the index trades. Where: LIVE from 04:00 ET until the open: the PREMARKET drawer above READOUTS, and the premarket candles left of 09:30. Plan: LIVE only.

1. Open the terminal in LIVE from 04:00 ET: the PREMARKET drawer opens above READOUTS for the market on the chart.
2. Read the estimate: where the market stands now and its change against the close, with the source and how old it is.
3. Read the levels: yesterday's flip, call wall and put wall, each with the signed distance from the estimate, in the market's own points.
4. Read ATR used: how much of the average daily range the move since the close has used.
5. Pan the chart left: the premarket from 20:00 ET the evening before sits in 5-minute candles left of 09:30. LAYERS > SESSION > PM draws its high and low.

What it measures: The index does not trade yet, so its price is an estimate: the live price of a stand-in ETF times yesterday's closing ratio between the two. SPX and ES come from SPY, NQ from QQQ, gold (GC) from GLD and crude (CL) from USO; ES and NQ then go through the basis measured from the index options, and on the morning a stock goes ex-dividend the dividend is added back. A ticker shows its own price; an index goes through its ETF (NDX via QQQ, RUT via IWM).

How to read it:

• Every number says est. or, for a ticker's own price, ref.: none is an official print.
• A jump is read against its cause: an 8:30 CPI or payrolls is marked.

Limits: Part of LIVE, and on the screen only: no file, API, alert or ASK answer carries a premarket number. A replay has no premarket.

Related: PREMARKET, the full page · LIVE: Session levels · LIVE: Futures views: ES, NQ, RTY, GC, SI, ZB, CL · LIVE: Morning levels mail

PANELS#

Why: several books side by side, each with its own symbol and settings. Where: PANELS 1, 2, 3 or + PANEL in the top bar. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Press PANELS 1, 2 or 3, or + PANEL for one more, up to twelve.
2. Click a panel's symbol chip to change its ticker; empty means it follows the chart.
3. Set each panel like a ladder column: book, expiry, metric, window, bars or heat.
4. Read FLIP, CW, PW and NET at the panel's foot; CHART in the bar hides or shows the main chart.

Related: LIVE: Ladder columns · LIVE: Chart layouts

Chart layouts#

Why: several symbols, each with its own switches, playing on one clock. Where: the layout icon at the top right; ⌥1 to ⌥6. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click the layout icon at the top right.
2. Pick an arrangement: Single, 2-Up, 2-Stack, 3-Up, 3-Stack, 4-Up (⌥1 to ⌥6).
3. Or pick a preset: Index quad (SPX, QQQ, IWM, DIA), Semis, Risk gauges (SPX, UVXY, TLT, GLD), Commodities and more.
4. Each pane keeps its own symbol chip, layers and ladder, and follows the page's day and minute.

How to read it:

• When you are signed in, your arrangement (the grid and its tickers, panels, columns, display settings) is kept with your account, so it follows you to another device; the newer copy wins.

Limits: Up to four charts in one layout.

Related: LIVE: PANELS · LIVE: Symbol picker · REPLAY: Share a link to a view

Symbol picker#

Why: the same chart and controls for every symbol, with how often its book is rebuilt. Where: the symbol chip, or start typing a ticker anywhere. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click the symbol chip, or just start typing a ticker; the list opens on it.
2. Read the sections: SPX (live engine, every second, three books), the futures, and the snapshot tickers (volume and OI books every five minutes), each with its price, its side of the flip and a trust grade.
3. Filter with INDEX, ETF, STOCK or FUTURES, or search by name (semi, gold).
4. enter opens it on the chart, shift+enter in a new panel; the star pins it.

What it measures: SPX is measured every second in three books. More than a hundred more symbols are carried from snapshots of the option chain every five minutes with the volume and open-interest books, the flip and the walls. What a snapshot cannot measure is absent rather than faked: no measured book, no DEX or VEX, no hold band.

How to read it:

• The badge on the chip says how often its book is rebuilt: 1s or 5m.
• A stock shows its next earnings date on the chart.

Limits: A symbol's history starts the day it was added, in September 2026, and grows by one session every evening. LAB runs on SPX only.

Related: LIVE: Futures views: ES, NQ, RTY, GC, SI, ZB, CL · REPLAY: Gamma by symbol · LIVE: PANELS

Futures views: ES, NQ, RTY, GC, SI, ZB, CL#

Why: the levels in the points you actually chart, with no futures exchange data. Where: the symbol picker's FUTURES section, or type ES, NQ, RTY, MES, MNQ or M2K. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Pick FUTURES in the symbol picker, or type the symbol; the micros trade the same prices.
2. Point at the symbol chip to read the contract and today's basis or ratio.
3. Read the READOUTS book section: it opens with the contract and the basis, for example ESZ26 from the SPX book, basis +58.50.

What it measures: ES and NQ are the SPX and NDX books drawn at the future's price. Every price on the chart is moved by the basis: the gap between the future and the index, read every five minutes from put-call parity on the AM-settled options of the future's own quarterly expiry. The ES price it gives sat a median 0.02 points from the real ES over 206 sessions, the NQ price 0.4 points over September 2026. RTY is the RUT book moved the same way, at RTY's 0.1 tick. GC, SI, ZB and CL take the fund's book (GLD, SLV, TLT, USO) times the ratio.

How to read it:

• Only prices move: the expected move, the regime, gamma sizes, IV and every percentage are the index book's own.
• The basis shown is the day's running median at the future's tick; it shrinks to zero at expiry and jumps at each quarterly roll, eight days before expiry.

Limits: The regular session only: the index does not trade overnight, so neither does the view. RTY has not yet been checked against real RTY prices; on a day with no measured basis the RUT levels show in index points. YM is not offered.

Related: LIVE: Symbol picker · LIVE: PREMARKET · REPLAY: ES, NQ and RTY levels

Focus mode#

Why: the chart alone, nothing around it. Where: the focus icon at the top right. Plan: LIVE for today; free on every finished session.

1. Click the focus icon: the top bar and the status line go away and the chart fills the window.
2. Press Escape to bring them back.

Related: LIVE: Chart layouts

DARE US#

Why: a use case the terminal does not cover yet, sent straight to the people who build it. Where: DARE US on the toolbar. Plan: Free.

1. Press DARE US.
2. Describe what you trade and what you want to see, and press Send.
3. The card answers Got it: every request is read and answered by email.

Related: LIVE: The ASK drawer

Alert lines#

Why: an alert where you are looking, on a fixed price or on the call wall, put wall or flip wherever the book moves it. Where: right-click the chart or a ladder row (hold for half a second on a phone); the bell on the price scale opens the line's card. Plan: LIVE.

1. Right-click a price on the chart and pick Alert at 7,809.75 for a price line at that price.
2. Near a wall or the flip, pick Alert when price reaches Call wall instead: a level line that follows that level as the book moves it.
3. On a ladder strike the menu offers Alert at strike and Contract card; All alerts opens the list in your account.
4. Drag a price line up or down to move it; the new price is saved when you let go.
5. Click the bell plate on the price scale for the card: Once, Repeat or Delete.

What it measures: A line fires on the first reading that crosses or touches it, with no waiting period, because you chose the price. A level line reads the volume book's flip, call wall or put wall, the levels the chart draws by default.

How to read it:

• A dashed line with a bell is a fixed price; a line named like Call wall 7,810.00 follows its level.
• A loop mark on the bell means the line repeats.
• A line says nothing about direction: it fires whichever way price meets it.

Limits: Up to 25 lines an account, kept on your account so they are on every device you sign in on. A repeating line fires again once price has been 20 SPX points away. Lines fire during the regular session only.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/alert-lines

Related: Alert lines, the full page · LIVE: Would-be fires on a replay · LIVE: Where alerts go · LIVE: The list of your alert lines · LIVE: Walls and levels

Would-be fires on a replay#

Why: judge a line on past sessions before trusting it live. Where: keep or set a line, then open a finished session; marks sit on the line and the card lists the times. Plan: LIVE for the lines; the sessions are free.

1. Set a line, or keep one you have.
2. Open a finished session from the date on the playback bar.
3. Read the small bell marks on the line: each one is a moment it would have fired. Point at one for would fire HH:MM.
4. Press play: the line flashes as playback crosses a would-be fire.
5. Click the bell for the card, which says, for example, On Oct 9 it would have fired once (to 15:59): 12:17.

What it measures: The same firing rule as the live alert, run over the session from the open to the cursor: the first reading that crosses or touches the line, and for a repeating line every return after price has been 20 SPX points away.

How to read it:

• A mark is where the rule would have fired. It does not say what price did next.

Limits: Nothing is sent for a would-be fire. In LIVE scrubbed back, the marks cover the part of today already traded.

Related: LIVE: Alert lines · REPLAY: The playback bar

Level alerts on a watchlist#

Why: hear about the events that change the book on every symbol you follow, without a chart open for each. Where: Account, Level alerts, YOUR SYMBOLS and ALERT ME WHEN. Plan: LIVE.

1. Type symbols under YOUR SYMBOLS (SPX, ES, NQ, RTY or any ticker on the chart) and press Add; the x on a chip removes it.
2. Under ALERT ME WHEN, switch on the events you want.
3. For The flip moves set the minimum move in points; for Price nears the flip or a wall set the distance.
4. Press Save alerts. HOW ALERTS FIRE below explains the hold time and the repeat window.

What it measures: SPX, ES and NQ are checked every few seconds against the book rebuilt each second. Other symbols read their five-minute book, and the message says so. ES, NQ and RTY are the index book moved by the day's basis.

How to read it:

• Each message carries the event, the price, the time in New York, the flip and both walls, and the book.
• A regime turning is a fact about the book, not a forecast of the next move.

Limits: Up to twenty symbols. A new side must hold for twenty seconds, and the same alert is not sent again within fifteen minutes. Regular session only.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/events

Related: LIVE: Where alerts go · LIVE: Webhooks · LIVE: Symbol picker · LAB: Desk alerts · Zero-gamma flip

The list of your alert lines#

Why: see all your lines across symbols, and change a line's mode without finding it on a chart. Where: Account, Level alerts, section 05, or All alerts in the chart's right-click menu. Plan: LIVE.

1. Open the list: each line shows its symbol and price, or the level it follows (SPX flip (follows it)).
2. Read Once or Repeats under each line.
3. Press Make repeat or Make once to switch it, or Delete to remove it.

How to read it:

• The count on the right (3 / 25) is the lines in use against the limit.

Limits: Lines are added on the chart, not here.

Related: LIVE: Alert lines

Where alerts go#

Why: one place decides where every alert goes: level alerts, alert lines and order alerts alike. Where: Account, Level alerts, WHERE ALERTS GO. Plan: LIVE.

1. Telegram: press Open @FirmTapeBot; the one-time link works for 30 minutes.
2. Push to this device: turn the switch on, on each device that should ring. On iPhone and iPad only from the installed app.
3. Webhook: paste an https:// address and press Save; Send test event checks it.

How to read it:

• An alert goes to every destination that is on. One alert is claimed once, so it goes out once.

Limits: One webhook address an account.

Related: LIVE: Telegram: @FirmTapeBot and the channel · LIVE: Notifications on your phone · LIVE: Webhooks

Telegram: @FirmTapeBot and the channel#

Why: alerts and the current levels in the chat app already on your phone. Where: Account, Level alerts, Open @FirmTapeBot; then commands in the chat. Plan: LIVE for alerts and live levels; without LIVE the bot's levels are fifteen minutes late.

1. Link the chat from Account, Level alerts.
2. Type /levels for your list, or /levels es for one symbol.
3. Use /watch, /unwatch and /list to edit the watchlist from the chat.

The public channel @firmtape posts SPX, ES, NQ and four of the most opened tickers fifteen minutes late at 09:50, 12:00 and 15:45 ET, and the day's summary after the close.

Limits: Alerts reach the one chat linked to the account.

Related: LIVE: Level alerts on a watchlist · LIVE: The ASK drawer

Notifications on your phone#

Why: an alert on the lock screen with no other app to install. Where: Account, Level alerts, Push to this device, on each device. Plan: LIVE.

1. On iPhone or iPad open firmtape.com in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
2. Open FirmTape from the Home Screen and turn on Push to this device under Account, Level alerts.
3. On Android or a desktop browser, open the same page and turn it on.
4. Press Send test to check the device at once.

Limits: Push is set per device. On iPhone and iPad it works only from the installed app.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/web-push

Related: LIVE: Where alerts go

Webhooks#

Why: every alert as data your own code can act on. Where: Account, Level alerts, Webhook. Plan: LIVE.

1. Paste one https:// address and press Save.
2. Press Send test event to post an event of type test.
3. Open Signing secret and keep it on your server; verify every request with it.
4. Rotate secret replaces it; the old one stops verifying at once.

What it measures: Every event on your list (the same symbols, events and holds as Telegram), every fired alert line and every order alert is POSTed to the address as JSON, signed with HMAC-SHA256 over the timestamp header, a dot and the raw body.

POST https://your.server/firmtape
Content-Type: application/json
X-FirmTape-Event: flip_cross
X-FirmTape-Event-Id: evt_3f9a0c6e21d4b7a8e5f10c2d
X-FirmTape-Timestamp: 1760034725
X-FirmTape-Signature: sha256=<hex HMAC-SHA256 of "<timestamp>.<raw body>">

{"version": 1, "id": "evt_3f9a0c6e21d4b7a8e5f10c2d", "type": "flip_cross",
 "symbol": "SPX", "level": {"kind": "flip", "value": 6715.5}, "price": 6712.25,
 "book": "volume", "ts": "2026-10-09T14:32:05-04:00", "day": "2026-10-09",
 "levels": {"flip": 6715.5, "call_wall": 6750, "put_wall": 6700, "put_support": 6700},
 "text": "SPX crossed below the flip 6,715.50", "direction": "below"}

Verify every request: recompute the signature over the timestamp header, a dot and the raw body, compare in constant time, and refuse a timestamp more than five minutes old. The POSITIONS webhook is signed the same way; Geo's webhooks sign theirs differently, and the developer reference has each one and the single format all three move to. Until 2026-10-11 the POSITIONS webhook signed the raw body alone; that signature is still sent, until 2026-11-30, as X-FirmTape-Signature-V0.

// Node
const crypto = require("crypto");
function verify(rawBody, headers, secret) {
  const t = headers["x-firmtape-timestamp"], sig = headers["x-firmtape-signature"] || "";
  if (!t || Math.abs(Date.now() / 1000 - Number(t)) > 300) return false;
  const want = "sha256=" + crypto.createHmac("sha256", secret).update(t + "." + rawBody).digest("hex");
  return sig.length === want.length && crypto.timingSafeEqual(Buffer.from(sig), Buffer.from(want));
}

# Python
import hmac, hashlib, time
def verify(raw_body: bytes, headers, secret: str) -> bool:
    t = headers.get("X-FirmTape-Timestamp", "")
    if not t or abs(time.time() - int(t)) > 300: return False
    want = "sha256=" + hmac.new(secret.encode(), t.encode() + b"." + raw_body, hashlib.sha256).hexdigest()
    return hmac.compare_digest(want, headers.get("X-FirmTape-Signature", ""))

Limits: Answer with any 2xx within three seconds. No answer, a 429 or a 5xx is tried again after one and four seconds, three tries in all; redirects are not followed. Ten failed events in a row switch the webhook off, and the account page shows why; saving the address switches it back on. Up to thirty events a minute per account. An address that resolves to a private, loopback or link-local address is refused.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/webhooks

Related: Webhooks, the full page · LIVE: Where alerts go · LIVE: Level alerts on a watchlist · ORDERS: Order rules

Morning levels mail#

Why: the levels you need before the open, in your inbox, before you open the chart. Where: on by default with LIVE; Account, Mail switches it. Plan: LIVE.

1. Keep Morning levels on under Account, Mail (it is on when LIVE starts).
2. Read it at 08:45 New York time on each trading day.
3. Switch it off with one click from the mail or under Account, Mail.

What it measures: The previous session's close, high and low; the volume book's flip and walls at 15:45 ET with their distance from the close; the expected move set at the previous open; today's scheduled releases; and on Mondays the week's events with the one that moved the archive most.

How to read it:

• The levels are the previous session's, read at 15:45 ET: the book rebuilds from the open.
• The distance column is points from the close, not a target.

Limits: Trading days only. The same Mail pane holds What's new, a mail of the terminal's changes every second Monday.

Related: Morning levels mail, the full page · LIVE: PREMARKET · LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: The expected move

The ASK drawer#

Why: questions about the chart you are looking at, answered from FirmTape's own measurements for that symbol, day and minute. Where: ASK on the toolbar (Cmd+\). Plan: any active paid plan, fifty questions a day.

1. Press ASK on the toolbar, or Cmd+\.
2. Pick a suggested question, or type your own and press Enter.
3. Read the counter under the box: questions left today.
4. Press the history button for earlier conversations, kept per session and symbol; + starts a new one.

How to read it:

• The chip in the header (SPX Oct 2, 2026 · 14:30 ET) is what ASK reads; it follows the cursor, the day and the symbol.
• The suggestions change with the chart: a replay offers questions about what happened, a live session about now.

Limits: Fifty questions a day per account, reset at midnight New York time. The drawer needs an active paid plan.

Related: LIVE: Slash commands · LIVE: Screen context and /context

Slash commands#

Why: the common look-ups in one line, without waiting for the model and without spending a question. Where: type / in the ASK box. Plan: any active paid plan.

1. Type / to open the list.
2. Pick a command with the arrows and press Enter, or type it in full.
3. For /history, add the level: /history 7810 or /history CW.

How to read it:

• /orders ranks by the gamma an order added to the book, not by premium: the largest cheque is often not the largest effect.
• The /orders header says how many orders carry no known side; no answer reads a side.

Limits: All but /history answer from the data without the model and without spending a question. Today's orders need the ORDERS plan; finished sessions are free.

Related: LIVE: /levels and answer cards · ORDERS: The order ledger · REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse

/levels and answer cards#

Why: the whole level set of the minute on screen, nearest first, in one compact list. Where: type /levels; model answers that cite levels or orders carry the same rows. Plan: any active paid plan.

1. Type /levels and press Enter.
2. Read the first line: how many levels, the price, and the nearest level above and below.
3. Read each row: the level's name and rank, its price, its distance from price, and the VOL or OI chips of the books that carry it.
4. Press COPY to take the answer as text.

How to read it:

• Green distances are above price and red below; the colour is position, not direction.
• A row with two names (PW·P1) is two levels on one price.
• The chips name the books: VOL the volume book, OI the open-interest book.

Limits: The list is the level rows drawn on the chart at that minute, from the books shown.

Related: LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: Slash commands

Screen context and /context#

Why: every question carries your screen, so "this level" means the one you see; /context shows that object. Where: type /context. Plan: any active paid plan.

1. Type /context and press Enter.
2. Read the object: symbol, mode (live or replay), day, minute, book, the values at the cursor and the level rows drawn.
3. Press COPY to take it as text.

What it measures: The values are the chart's own at the minute under the cursor: spot, VWAP, the gamma percentile, ATM IV, the straddle and the expected range, the session's open, high and low, and the flip of the book on screen.

How to read it:

• The server adds your alert lines on the symbol to what the page sends.

Limits: What a data licence keeps from the model is left out of the context.

Related: LIVE: The ASK drawer · LIVE: Alert lines

Free questions and answers#

Why: a question in plain words answered in this chart's terms, with the numbers to check it. Where: type any question in the ASK box and press Enter. Plan: any active paid plan, fifty questions a day.

1. Type a question, for example Why is price where it is against the flip?, and press Enter.
2. While it works, the drawer says what it is reading.
3. Read the answer: the symbol and minute, a short reading, then the cards it cites.
4. Pick one of the follow-up questions under it, or press COPY.
5. If an answer cannot be finished, press TRY AGAIN.

How to read it:

• Every time in an answer is a link that moves the replay to that minute.
• The cards under the prose are the levels and orders the answer cites, so each figure can be checked on the chart.

Limits: Each free question spends one of the fifty a day. The answer explains measurements and never gives a trade call or a forecast.

Related: LIVE: /levels and answer cards · LIVE: Screen context and /context · LIVE: Telegram: @FirmTapeBot and the channel

The structure tester#

Why: a structure drawn where the book is, in a few clicks. Where: OPTIONS in the top bar; the rail opens beside the chart. Plan: Free on any finished session, with no account; live with LIVE.

1. Press OPTIONS.
2. Pick the side: writing the legs (short premium) or holding them (long premium).
3. Pick the right: AUTO puts calls above spot and puts below; CALL or PUT forces one.
4. Click strikes on the rail's ladder, up to four legs; the x on a leg removes it.
5. Or press STRADDLE, STRANGLE or CONDOR, then TIGHTEN ×0.8 or WIDEN ×1.25.

How to read it:

• Short legs are red, long legs green, the colours the legs wear everywhere in the terminal.

Limits: SPX 0DTE, up to four legs. On another symbol the rail prices that symbol's nearest expiry, but the archive run is SPX only.

Related: LIVE: Payoff, needs and priced · LIVE: Against the book · LIVE: Ladder columns

Open an order in OPTIONS#

Why: start from a structure that actually printed in size rather than from a blank ladder. Where: ORDERS, a row's OPT button, or Open in OPTIONS in the row's detail. Plan: Free on finished sessions; today's orders with the ORDERS plan.

1. Open ORDERS and find the order.
2. Press OPT on its row, or open the row and press Open in OPTIONS.
3. The strikes and rights load into the tester; read the structure like your own.

How to read it:

• The order's legs load as a structure; nothing about who was on which side of it is implied.

Limits: Orders of more than four legs, or not on SPX 0DTE, cannot be priced over the archive.

Related: ORDERS: The order ledger · LIVE: The structure tester

Payoff, needs and priced#

Why: the number that decides a short-premium trade, before any credit is spent. Where: the OPTIONS rail, under the structure: AT SETTLEMENT, then the tiles. Plan: Free.

1. Build a structure.
2. Read AT SETTLEMENT: the payoff at every possible close, the expected-move band and the breakevens.
3. Read NEEDS / PRICED: the win rate to break even against the probability the market prices.
4. Read KEEPS and RISKS, then the breakevens in expected moves and the risk to reward.

What it measures: Arithmetic off your own legs and the quotes of the minute on screen: the payoff at settlement, the breakevens, and the win rate the structure needs to break even after a $1.25 fee a leg, against the probability the market prices from the same quotes.

How to read it:

• A negative gap (needs above priced) means the market charges less than the structure needs to win.
• Breakevens in expected moves say how far price may travel before the structure loses, in the day's own units.

Limits: A reading of one minute's quotes; it says nothing about how often the structure paid in the past.

Related: LIVE: The archive run · LIVE: The expected move

Against the book#

Why: the reading no payoff calculator has, because it needs a dealer book to compare against. Where: the OPTIONS rail, NET POSITION and AGAINST THE BOOK, and the ladder beside the chart. Plan: Free.

1. Build a structure on the session on screen.
2. Read where each short strike sits against the measured call wall, the put wall and the zero-gamma flip.
3. Scrub the session: a held structure stays put while the book moves around it.

What it measures: The net position of the structure now and its distance from the levels of the measured book at the minute on screen.

How to read it:

• A short strike near a wall is near where the book is heavy; that is a position, not a forecast of the next move.

Limits: Measured on SPX; other symbols read their five-minute volume and open-interest books.

Related: LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: Payoff, needs and priced

The archive run#

Why: an answer from history, on real quotes and real settlement, about your own shape. Where: the run button at the foot of the OPTIONS rail; the result opens in the rail. Plan: 10 LAB credits a run; a failed run refunds them.

1. Build the structure and check STORED AS A RULE: each leg as its distance from spot.
2. Press the run button at the foot of the rail.
3. Read the result first, then the grid under it: seven widths across nine entry times, each coloured by what it averaged.
4. If the first 63 come back flat, the run carries on for the same credits: where the structure sits, past the edge of the grid, then eight standard 0DTE shapes, up to 154 configurations.

What it measures: Your geometry priced over about 1,080 archived sessions with short legs filled at the bid, long legs at the ask and $1.25 a leg. A structure collecting less than its own commission is dropped rather than counted as a small win. What it pays is shown per session and per month, on the holdout and the full sample, each with the error bar from session-to-session dispersion.

How to read it:

• Every run ends in one of three findings: a change of width or entry the archive paid for, a flat top with what it pays, or other structures that held up instead.
• A change is reported only when the gain is ordered along the stretch you would walk, clears the error bar on the difference, and a withheld holdout agrees.
• When the error bar crosses zero, the result says so instead of quoting the mean.

Limits: SPX 0DTE only, same-day expiry. The AM-settled monthly root is not ingested, and the rail says so rather than failing quietly.

Related: LAB: Credits and tokens · LAB: Quant optimize · LIVE: Payoff, needs and priced

Platform integrations#

Why: the levels on the chart you already trade from, refreshed by themselves. Where: Integrations, one page per platform; the token under Account, Integrations. Plan: LIVE. Beta.

1. Open Integrations and pick your platform.
2. Create an integration token under Account, Integrations.
3. Follow that platform's page to install the plugin and paste the token.
4. For platforms that cannot fetch data, copy the levels string from the same account page and paste it into the script.

What it measures: The volume book's zero-gamma flip, call wall and put wall, optionally the open-interest levels and gamma by strike, for SPX, ES, NQ, RTY and the tickers on Symbols. Plugins that fetch refresh every few seconds.

How to read it:

• Each plugin writes a status line naming the symbol, the contract and basis for a future, the book and how old it is.
• A line is a level of the book, not a target.

Limits: All plugins are beta. Platforms that cannot fetch data keep the pasted levels until you paste again. More platforms are being prepared and appear on Integrations when released.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/integrations

Related: LIVE: Integration tokens · LIVE: Levels API · LIVE: Walls and levels

Integration tokens#

Why: a key that can only read levels, one per place it is used, so each can be revoked alone. Where: Account, Integrations. Plan: LIVE.

1. Name the token after the platform or machine and press Create integration token.
2. Copy it at once: it is shown once, then only its last characters.
3. Paste it into the plugin or your script.

How to read it:

• The list shows each token's name, its last characters, when it was made and last used, and Revoke.

Limits: A token reads levels only: it cannot run LAB or spend credits.

Related: LIVE: Platform integrations · LIVE: Levels API

Levels API#

Why: the levels as data, with their book and time, for a bot, a sheet or a dashboard of your own. Where: a token from Account, Integrations; the requests are on the reference page. Plan: LIVE.

1. Create an integration token under Account, Integrations.
2. Send it as a bearer header with each request, as the reference shows.
3. Ask for up to twenty symbols at once: SPX, ES, NQ, RTY or any ticker on Symbols.
4. Add gamma by strike when you need the ladder, or the day's levels as a series.

What it measures: The volume book's zero-gamma flip, call wall, put wall and net gamma, with the open-interest book alongside. SPX's book is rebuilt every second; a ticker's every five minutes; ES, NQ and RTY are the index books moved by the day's basis.

How to read it:

• Each answer names the book and the time of the reading; a future also names its contract and basis.
• An unchanged reading answers with no body, so polling every few seconds costs little.

Limits: 120 requests a minute per token. A revoked token or an ended plan stops working within a minute. Every field and error is on the reference page, with an OpenAPI document.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live

Related: Levels API, the full page · LIVE: Integration tokens · LIVE: Platform integrations · LIVE: Webhooks

Notes on a minute#

Why: a private line attached to the minute under the cursor, marked on the scrubber when you come back. Where: the pencil on the status line (N). Plan: Free with a signed-in account.

1. Put the cursor on the minute and press the pencil on the status line, or N.
2. The editor names the minute, the day, spot and the flip. Type your note.
3. Press SAVE, or Cmd+Enter.
4. The note shows as a tick on the scrubber with its text on hover; the day's notes are listed under the editor.
5. all my notes opens every note at /account/notes.

How to read it:

• Only you see a note. A ?t= link to the minute is shareable; the note is not.

Limits: Notes need a signed-in account.

Related: REPLAY: Share a link to a view · REPLAY: The playback bar

Bracket: sketch a structure against the book#

Why: see your own sketch in the book's terms: how far each of its lines sits from the nearest wall or the flip, and the odds the market prices for the close landing beyond each. Where: the tool bar at the chart's left edge (the cursor, the two bracket tools and clear). Plan: LIVE for today's session; free on every finished session in REPLAY.

1. Pick a bracket tool on the tool bar at the chart's left edge.
2. Click the chart at the price you want to study. The stop and the target start half an expected move away (one percent of the price when the symbol has no expected move).
3. Drag the stop line, the target line or the box's right edge to reshape it.
4. Read the card beside it, and pick the unit it counts in: ES or MES contracts, index points or shares.
5. Clear it from the tool bar. Nothing is sent anywhere; it is a sketch on your screen.

What it measures: For each line, the distance in points to the nearest call wall, put wall or flip of the book on the chart, and the odds the option chain prices for the close landing beyond that line (shown with at least thirty minutes left). The units are the symbol's own: on the ES view every price is already moved by the basis.

How to read it:

• The card describes the sketch, not a trade: distances, the chain's odds for the close beyond each line, and the book's levels near each line.
• Those odds are the market's own pricing of where the close lands, not a forecast of which line price meets first.

Limits: One bracket a symbol, kept in this browser until you clear it, not on your account. It is never sent to a broker or an alert.

Related: LIVE: Level card · LIVE: Walls and levels · LIVE: The expected move

The order ledger#

Why: the session's large orders as decisions rather than fills, each placed against the book at the minute it printed. Where: ORDERS on the toolbar, or ?orders on a terminal address; the public page is /orders. Plan: Free on every finished session; today's live ledger is the ORDERS plan.

1. Press ORDERS on the toolbar; the panel docks right of the chart.
2. Read a row: time, Γ ADDED, structure, contracts, expiry, size, net premium, VS FLIP, VS EM and SHARE.
3. Click a row to open its detail with Open in OPTIONS; the OPT button does the same.
4. Click a contract name to open its contract card.
5. On a replay, move the cursor: the ledger shows the orders up to that minute.

What it measures: Each row is one SPX order above $100,000 of net premium, rebuilt from the tape: prints grouped by the millisecond into one order, the structure named from its legs. Γ ADDED is the change it made to the measured dealer book at its minute; VS FLIP is its distance from the volume flip in points, VS EM in expected moves; SHARE is its share of its busiest strike.

How to read it:

• Green gamma added means the order added gamma to the book, red that it shed some; it is a size, not a direction.
• A small $ chip on a row is a premium highlight you set; an amber expiry is today's.
• No row names a side: the side of an SPX print is close to a coin flip, and a quarter to a half of the orders carry none.

Limits: SPX only. Orders under $100,000 of net premium are not in the ledger. Finished sessions go back to January 2024.

Related: ORDERS: Sort and filters · ORDERS: The contract card · LIVE: The structure tester · LIVE: The three books

Orders on the chart#

Why: the session's ten largest orders drawn on the candles, at the minute and the price they printed. Where: LAYERS in the chart's header, the ORDERS row. Plan: Free on every finished session; today's live orders need the ORDERS plan.

1. Open LAYERS and switch ORDERS to ON.
2. Pick GAMMA or PREMIUM to size the circles.
3. Point at a circle to read the orders in it: time, structure, expiry and gamma.
4. The ORDERS button on the same row opens the ORDERS table on that day.

How to read it:

• A bigger circle is a larger order by the measure you picked; a number inside counts orders that share a circle.
• A letter names the structure: V vertical, D diagonal, R a ratio, S straddle, RR a strangle or risk reversal, IC iron condor, IF iron fly, C calendar, M several expiries; a single leg has none.

Limits: The ten largest of the session only.

Related: ORDERS: The order ledger · LIVE: LAYERS

Sort and filters#

Why: the slice of the ledger you trade, in the order you want to read it. Where: the filter row under the panel's tabs. Plan: Free on every finished session; live with the ORDERS plan.

1. Pick ALL EXP, 0DTE or NEXT for the expiry.
2. Pick a floor: $100k, $250k or $1M of net premium.
3. Pick BOOK, MONEY or TIME; the header reads the sort (BY TIME, MONEY FIRST).
4. Click a column head to sort by that column instead.

How to read it:

• The floors and the expiry slice apply to every view: ORDERS, STRUCT, TERM and BOARDS.

Limits: A narrow slice can be kept as its own tab.

Related: ORDERS: Saved tabs · ORDERS: STRUCT and TERM views

STRUCT and TERM views#

Why: the day's orders summed, so the mix of structures and the term structure of the size read at a glance. Where: STRUCT or TERM in the filter row. Plan: Free on every finished session; live with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press STRUCT: one row per structure with its orders, net premium, contracts and share of the slice.
2. Press TERM: the same slice by expiry bucket, 0DTE, this week, this month and later.
3. Combine either with the expiry and $ floors; the footer counts the orders in the slice.

How to read it:

• The bar is the structure's share of the filtered slice, not of the whole market.

Limits: SPX orders above the ledger's floor only.

Related: ORDERS: Sort and filters · ORDERS: The order ledger

Saved tabs#

Why: switch between the slices you read every day without setting them again. Where: the tabs row at the top of the panel. Plan: Free.

1. Press + beside the tabs; a new tab opens with its name field ready to type.
2. Set the view, the slices, the sort, the columns and the highlights.
3. Double-click a tab, or open its menu (the dots), to Rename, Duplicate or Delete it.
4. Switch tabs: each one restores everything it was set to.

Limits: One to twelve tabs, kept in this browser.

Related: ORDERS: Columns and highlights · ORDERS: Sort and filters

Columns and highlights#

Why: the columns you read in the order you read them, and the rows you care about marked. Where: COLUMNS in the panel header. Plan: Free.

1. Press COLUMNS. Tick a column to show it; the arrows move it; RESET restores the default order.
2. Under HIGHLIGHT, mark orders larger than their strike's open interest (OI), expiring today (0D) or of at least a net premium ($: $0.5M, $1M, $2.5M or $5M).
3. The tag appears on the row.

How to read it:

• A highlight describes the order only; none of them rests on the side of the order.

Related: ORDERS: Saved tabs · ORDERS: CSV and IMG

CSV and IMG#

Why: the exact slice you are reading, as a file or a picture. Where: CSV and IMG in the panel header. Plan: Free on every finished session; live with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press CSV to download the active tab as orders-<day>.csv, in its sort and columns.
2. Press IMG to copy the table to the clipboard as a picture.

How to read it:

• Both use exactly what the tab shows: view, filters and columns.

Limits: The file holds FirmTape's own fields only, never a vendor's option price or quote.

Related: ORDERS: Saved tabs · ORDERS: Orders API and MCP

EXPAND#

Why: the full ledger without a cut column or a shortened contract list. Where: EXPAND in the panel header. Plan: Free.

1. Press EXPAND; press it again for the normal width.
2. In the wide panel the OPT button shows on every row and long contract lists are no longer cut.

Related: ORDERS: The order ledger

A link that opens ORDERS#

Why: send someone straight to a session's orders. Where: the address bar, or any link you write. Plan: Free.

1. Add ?orders to a terminal address, for example /replay/2026-08-21?orders.
2. Combine it with the other switches of the address, such as ?t= for the minute.

Related: REPLAY: Share a link to a view · ORDERS: The order ledger

Order rules#

Why: an alert when a new order in today's live ledger matches what you look for. Where: RULES in the panel header. Plan: ORDERS.

1. Press RULES, then + NEW RULE, and give it a name.
2. Pick PREMIUM AT LEAST ($100k to $5M), a STRUCTURE (any, or one or more shapes) and an EXPIRY (any, this week, 0DTE).
3. Optionally pick NEAR A LEVEL: one of its strikes within 5, 10, 25 or 50 points of the flip or a wall.
4. Press SAVE. Each rule can be switched on or off, edited or removed.

What it measures: A rule describes the order: its premium, structure, expiry and distance to a level. It never reads the side, because the side of an SPX print is close to a coin flip.

How to read it:

• A match is sent once, by the first rule it matches.

Limits: Up to ten rules. At most 30 order alerts an hour. They go where level alerts go (Telegram, push, the webhook, as type order).

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live/events/order

Related: LIVE: Where alerts go · LIVE: Webhooks · ORDERS: The order ledger

Contract boards#

Why: see which single contracts the session traded most, over one session or seven. Where: BOARDS in the ORDERS filter row; each finished day's boards are also a page at /spx/most-active-options. Plan: Free on every finished session; today's boards with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press BOARDS.
2. Pick the ranking: TOP VOLUME, TOP PREMIUM, TOP OPEN INT or UNUSUAL VOL/OI.
3. Pick the window: 1D (one session) or 7D (seven sessions).
4. Read the head line: calls, puts, the put-call ratio and the total.
5. Click a row to open its contract card.

What it measures: Each board ranks contracts over the window. Vol/OI is the window's volume over the open interest at its start; 7D sums seven sessions and divides by the open interest at the first one's morning.

How to read it:

• A high Vol/OI says the day's trading was large against the positions that existed; it does not say positions were opened.
• The multi-leg share says how much of the contract traded inside multi-leg orders; read the structure, not the leg.

Limits: Nothing on a board names a side, or whether a position was opened or closed. Today's boards are rebuilt every five minutes from the tape so far; the evening's build replaces them at full width.

Related: ORDERS: The contract card · LIVE: Ladder columns · Open interest and volume

The contract card#

Why: one contract's day in one place: how much traded, when, at what average price, inside which structures, and in which large orders. Where: click a strike on the price scale, right-click a ladder row and pick Contract card, or click a board row or an order's leg. Plan: Free on every finished session; live with the ORDERS plan.

1. Click a strike on the price scale: the card opens beside it as a popover. C and P switch the right.
2. Read the numbers: volume and prints, morning open interest, Vol/OI, average price, premium traded and the share in multi-leg orders.
3. Read VOLUME PER 5 MINUTES: single-leg and multi-leg bars with the average fill price as a line; hover a bar for its five minutes.
4. Open the tabs: STRUCTURES, LARGEST ORDERS and SESSIONS.
5. In LARGEST ORDERS, press the play button on a row to move the replay to that second.
6. Press Expand for the drawer, one scrolling card over the chart's right edge beside ORDERS.

What it measures: Volume and prints are the session's; open interest is the morning count, before the open. Structures group multi-leg prints by the millisecond and name them by shape, as shares of the contract's volume. The change in open interest on SESSIONS is the next morning's count minus this one.

How to read it:

• A high Vol/OI says the session's trading was large against the morning's positions; it does not say positions were opened.
• A large multi-leg share means the contract mostly traded as a leg; read the structure, not the leg.
• The average fill price line is a price, not a direction.

Limits: Nothing on the card names a side, or whether a position was opened or closed. A session's change in open interest is known the next morning.

Related: The contract card, the full page · ORDERS: Contract boards · ORDERS: Card actions: alert line and its orders · ORDERS: The order ledger · REPLAY: The playback bar

Card actions: alert line and its orders#

Why: from reading a contract to watching it in one press. Where: the two buttons under the card's title. Plan: Alert line: LIVE. Show its orders: free on finished sessions, live with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press Alert line at <strike>: the button turns to Alert line set and the line appears on the chart with its bell.
2. Press Show its orders: the ledger gains a chip with the contract (for example 7680C Aug 21) and lists only the orders that touched it.
3. Press the chip's x to remove the filter.

Limits: On a replay only the orders up to the cursor show.

Related: LIVE: Alert lines · ORDERS: The contract card

Orders API and MCP#

Why: the same rows the panel draws, as data, with the fields the panel has to abbreviate. Where: keys under Account, Orders; the reference is at /docs/developers/orders. Plan: The Orders API or Team plan.

1. Take the API or Team plan on /pricing#orders.
2. Create a key under Account, Orders; it is shown once.
3. Follow the reference to ask for a dated session or the newest one, or point an assistant at the MCP server.

The rows carry every field the panel shows, plus per-leg detail. Half of them carry no side, and the reference says why. POSITIONS checks and entry logs are available the same way.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/orders

Related: ORDERS: The order ledger · ORDERS: CSV and IMG · ORDERS: Entry log · REPLAY: MCP server

POSITIONS panel and editor#

Why: your shorts read against the market minute, side by side, with the large orders at your strikes one panel away. Where: POSITIONS on the toolbar (ORDERS opens with it), then + or EDIT. Plan: Free signed in on finished sessions; the live day with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press POSITIONS on the toolbar, then + for a new position or EDIT for the one shown.
2. Pick a structure: IRON CONDOR, STRANGLE, PUT SPREAD or CALL SPREAD.
3. Set the strikes with 1 EM OUT, LAST USED or TYPE STRIKES (low to high); the line under them gives each short's distance from spot in expected moves.
4. Set ENTRY (between 09:30 and 16:00) and ALERT FROM, and where the alerts go.
5. Switch your conditions on or off with their thresholds, then SAVE POSITION.
6. Read each side's label and its reason; 15m, 30m and 60m set the window the orders near your shorts are counted in, 1x and 2x the panel's width.

What it measures: The check reads each side against the market minute, the same for every account: the short's distance in points and in expected moves left to the close, the large orders near it, the levels inside or outside it, the move toward it, and realised against implied volatility. A side's label counts the counted conditions that are on: TRADE below your CAUTION count, CAUTION from it, SKIP from your SKIP count (two and three by default).

How to read it:

• A label is a count of your own conditions, at the threshold you chose. It is not a forecast and not an instruction.
• The reason names the conditions that are on, and the one that is off but nearest its threshold.
• A condition whose input is not known at that minute reads not known yet and never counts.

Limits: SPX only, 0DTE structures: condor, strangle, put spread or call spread. Up to five positions an account. A position is a set of strikes you typed, not an account at a broker.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/orders/positions

Related: POSITIONS panel and editor, the full page · ORDERS: Conditions and the not counted list · ORDERS: Opening read and label changes · ORDERS: Entry log · ORDERS: The order ledger

Conditions and the not counted list#

Why: the label is yours: each test has the threshold you choose, and the ones you do not count stay visible. Where: POSITIONS, section 01 Your conditions and 03 Not counted; thresholds in the editor. Plan: Free signed in on finished sessions; the live day with the ORDERS plan.

1. Read each side's counted conditions with the value now and your threshold.
2. The tick on each bar is your threshold; a filled dot marks a condition that is on.
3. Under 03 Not counted, read the conditions shown but not counted, each with where it stands now.
4. Press COUNT beside one to add it to the label, or switch it in the editor.

How to read it:

• An uncounted condition is still read and shown in the reason's words; it never moves the label until you count it.
• A condition that cannot be measured at that minute reads not known yet and is never counted as on.

Limits: Needs above priced uses the same formulas as OPTIONS, at the ATM vol of the minute.

Related: ORDERS: POSITIONS panel and editor · LIVE: The expected move · LIVE: Against the book

Label track#

Why: whether a side's count has been steady or keeps changing. Where: POSITIONS, section 02 Label, last hour. Plan: Free signed in on finished sessions; the live day with the ORDERS plan.

1. Read the PUT and CALL rows: one cell per minute, coloured by the label.
2. Read the sentence under them: the minutes at each label and since when the current one holds.

How to read it:

• Colour is the label of your own count at that minute; it says nothing about the next minute.

Related: ORDERS: POSITIONS panel and editor

Opening read and label changes#

Why: the first read of the day at your time, then one message only when something changes. Where: POSITIONS editor, Entry & alert. Plan: The live day with the ORDERS plan.

1. Set ALERT FROM (ten minutes before the entry by default); the line under it says what will be sent.
2. Pick TELEGRAM, EMAIL or WEBHOOK (Telegram must be linked in the account), or OFF.
3. At that minute every side's label and reason arrive in one message, sent whether or not anything changed: the opening read.
4. After it, one message each time a side's label changes, to the close.

How to read it:

• A message reports your conditions' count and its reason; it is not an instruction.

Limits: Live sessions only, between 09:30 and 16:00 New York. A label that stays put sends nothing, and each label is sent once a day per side.

Related: ORDERS: The POSITIONS webhook · LIVE: Where alerts go · ORDERS: POSITIONS panel and editor

The POSITIONS webhook#

Why: the opening read and every label change as data your own code can act on. Where: POSITIONS editor, Entry & alert, WEBHOOK. Plan: The Orders API or Team plan.

1. Pick WEBHOOK and paste an https:// address.
2. Copy the signing secret shown under it and keep it on your server.
3. Press SEND TEST to post a test message to the address.

What it measures: The body is the same check the Orders API returns, so one parser serves both, signed as the level alerts' webhook is: HMAC-SHA256 over the timestamp header, a dot and the raw body.

Limits: Without the Orders API or Team plan the WEBHOOK channel is locked. The address must be public.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/orders/events

Related: ORDERS: Opening read and label changes · LIVE: Webhooks · ORDERS: Orders API and MCP

Entry log#

Why: how your conditions read at your entry minute day after day, recorded or replayed. Where: ENTRY LOG in POSITIONS, or LOG in the ORDERS filter row. Plan: Free signed in; the live day's record with the ORDERS plan.

1. Press ENTRY LOG (or LOG in ORDERS). With no saved position it says NO POSITION YET.
2. Read each day's entry record: the label of the put and call side at entry, the reason, how close price came to each short after entry and where it stood at the close.
3. Read the tallies of days by the label at entry, and how many kept both shorts outside at the close.
4. DOWNLOAD CSV or COPY AS JSON to keep the table.

What it measures: RECORDED rows are kept exactly as they were on live days; REPLAYED rows are worked out later from the archive, with every strike moved by how far the price at the entry minute stood from the newest session's, because a 0DTE strike is set from the day's price. Either way the check reads nothing after the entry minute; only a recorded row proves you saw it then. Points only.

How to read it:

• The tallies count your own conditions' labels at entry and what price did after; they are a record, not a forecast of the next session.

Limits: Recent sessions only.

Related: ORDERS: POSITIONS panel and editor · ORDERS: Orders API and MCP

The LAB desk and the backtest#

Why: a verdict on every finished session, against the idea's own core condition, out of sample. Where: LAB in the top bar; + NEW IDEA starts one, the box at the bottom sends it. Plan: Developing is free; a backtest is one LAB credit.

1. Press LAB in the top bar. The desk lists your ideas.
2. Press + NEW IDEA and type the idea the way you would say it, for example a stretch off VWAP while the book is short gamma, with a 30-minute horizon.
3. Read what LAB understood: the rule in words, with its thresholds, horizon and cost. If it cannot compile yet, it asks one concrete question instead of guessing.
4. Press BACKTEST (one credit).
5. Read the gates passed, then the era table under them.

What it measures: The rule runs over every archived session on a minute grid. For each trigger it measures the move over the horizon, after the cost, and compares the full rule with its core condition alone. The verdict is split out of sample: this year, and the last 40 sessions.

How to read it:

• 2/4 gates passed, promising, not proven means the rule has not cleared the bar; four of four means it owes a stricter test.
• A thin sample is named: 48 trades over 8 sessions is eight observations, not 48.
• A good number in one era and a poor one in another is a rule that did not hold.

Limits: SPX only, inside one session, at a 5, 15 or 30 minute horizon. A tested idea can draw and alert on the chart with the same thresholds; that is a convenience, not a forecast.

Related: The LAB desk and the backtest, the full page · LAB: Quant optimize · LAB: The LAB vocabulary · LAB: Credits and tokens · REPLAY

The LAB vocabulary#

Why: know exactly which measurements a rule can name, and which book each one reads. Where: LAB, VOCABULARY, or the full reference at /lab/vocabulary. Plan: Free to read.

1. Open VOCABULARY on the LAB desk, or /lab/vocabulary.
2. Find the group your idea belongs to, then the column, its unit and range.
3. Use the column's name in your words, or in a rule sent through the API.

LAB understands 120 columns in ten groups, each named for what it is and, where the value depends on a book, for its book: _vol the volume book, _meas the measured book, _oi open interest. Old names (renamed 2026-10-03) are refused with the new one in the error.

A rule is one or two legs. A leg has a direction, up or down, the way the trade profits, and a list of conditions that must all hold at the same minute. The engine measures the move over the next 5, 15 or 30 minutes of the same session, after a cost, against the core condition alone, out of sample.

Limits: The vocabulary is the same dictionary the compiler is given, so what is not in it cannot be tested yet.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/lab/vocabulary

Related: LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · LAB: LAB from a script · Data dictionary

The idea feed#

Why: a running supply of rule-shaped ideas to test, when you do not have one of your own. Where: LAB, the IDEA FEED beside the desk. Plan: Free to read; testing spends credits.

1. Read the feed: each card has the idea, when it was found and whether it compiles clean.
2. Press DEVELOP to drop it into the desk exactly as if you had typed it.
3. Backtest it like any idea of your own.

How to read it:

• Every card is marked untested: the feed is deliberately not judged, and the test is yours to run.

Limits: The ideas are collected from public posts by a scanner and are not checked before they appear.

Related: LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest

Quant optimize#

Why: learn whether a better threshold exists, or whether the best one is only lucky. Where: after a backtest, OPTIMIZE on the LAB desk. Plan: One LAB credit a pass.

1. Backtest the rule first.
2. Press OPTIMIZE (one credit). Every threshold of every filter is swept.
3. Read the chart: the running total of the rule as written against its variants.
4. Read the variant table by era, then the lines under it: the five best days' share, the deflated Sharpe, the overfitting check.

What it measures: Each variant's net per trade in all sessions, 2026 and hold40; the deflated Sharpe of the best row against the number of variants; the probability that the best row lands below the median out of sample, over thousands of splits.

How to read it:

• Green means positive out of sample, above the core baseline and outside the day-clustered error bar; anything that clears still owes a stricter test.
• The five best days are 131% of the total means that without them the rule loses.
• Picking the best row is no better than picking at random is the overfitting check saying the grid holds no real ordering.

Limits: Variants that never bind give identical rows; that says the filter decided nothing.

Related: LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · LIVE: The archive run

The desk on the chart#

Why: see where your tested rule triggers, on the live session, on any finished day and in playback, with the formula the backtest scored. Where: ADD TO DESK after a backtest or an optimize pass; the desk lists your ideas, each with its switch, its draw style and its colour. Plan: Free once an idea is tested; the live session needs LIVE, finished days are free.

1. Take an idea through BACKTEST (and OPTIMIZE if you like), then press ADD TO DESK.
2. Flip the idea's switch on the desk. A blinking colour dot means it is drawing; grey means it is off.
3. Pick how it draws: ZONES, MARKS, TRADES or RAILS, and its colour from six.
4. Play a finished session, or follow the live one: the drawing moves with the chart.
5. Press the star to pin an idea to the top of the list.

What it measures: The rule's conditions read at each minute of the day on screen, with the thresholds the backtest used. For a rule whose core is a stretch off VWAP, the threshold is a rail (VWAP plus a number of standard deviations of the session's prices) and its crossings are computed on any day, live included.

How to read it:

• A mark is where the rule's conditions were met, measured on that minute. It is not a call to act.
• A simulated trade shows the rule's horizon from its entry; its result is the backtest's kind of measurement, not a forecast.
• Most rules on most desks did not clear the honest bar; drawing one does not change its verdict.

Limits: A rule whose core is not a stretch off VWAP has no price line to cross: rails and zones stay empty, and its marks and trades come from the backtest's recent triggers, so they show only on those days. SPX only.

Related: LAB: Desk alerts · LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · REPLAY: The playback bar

Desk alerts#

Why: the chart watches your rule for you, live or in playback, and tells you the moment it triggers. Where: the idea's settings on the desk (the gear), ALERT: OFF, SOUND or PUSH. Plan: Free on a desk idea; on the live session with LIVE.

1. Open a desk idea and press the gear for its settings.
2. Under ALERT pick SOUND (then a tone and a volume) or PUSH.
3. For PUSH, allow notifications when the browser asks; a test notification confirms it.
4. Keep the terminal open: the alert fires when the rule triggers as time passes on the chart.

What it measures: The same crossing the desk draws: the price moving through the rule's rail at a minute it had not crossed before. It fires on time that passes (a live tick, a playing playback, a one-step arrow) and stays silent on a far jump of the scrubber or a step backwards.

How to read it:

• An alert is the rule's measured trigger, the same one its backtest counted. It says nothing the backtest did not.

Limits: Desk alerts sound or notify in the browser where the terminal is open; they are separate from the alert lines and level alerts, which go to Telegram, push and your webhook (Alerts and delivery). They need a rule with a rail (a core that is a stretch off VWAP). SPX only.

Related: LAB: The desk on the chart · LIVE: Alert lines · LIVE: Level alerts on a watchlist

Credits and tokens#

Why: machine time priced honestly: conversation is free, each job has a fixed cost. Where: LAB, GET CREDITS, or Account, Credits and tokens. Plan: LAB packs or the LAB monthly plan; LIVE includes 5 credits a month. Pricing.

1. Read your balance: the plan's monthly credits and the purchased ones, shown apart.
2. Press GET CREDITS for the packs, or start the monthly plan.
3. Under Account, Credits and tokens, + Create token makes a LAB token for scripts and assistants; it is shown once.

How to read it:

• Monthly credits are spent first and expire with the month; purchased credits never expire.

Limits: A failed job refunds its credit automatically. A LAB token spends the same credits as the terminal.

Related: LAB: LAB from a script · REPLAY: MCP server · LIVE: The archive run

LAB from a script#

Why: automate research: compile, backtest, optimize and read the verdict without the terminal. Where: Account, Credits and tokens, + Create token; the reference is /docs/developers/lab. Plan: The same LAB credits as the terminal.

1. Create a LAB token on the account page.
2. Send it as the Authorization header from your script.
3. Describe, backtest and optimize exactly as on the desk, and read the same verdict as JSON.

Limits: Every call spends credits like the desk does.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/lab

Related: LAB: Credits and tokens · LAB: The LAB vocabulary · REPLAY: MCP server

Published research#

Why: see what has been measured on this data, with its sample and method, before trusting a reading or testing an idea. Where: /research, grouped as do the levels hold, what the book is made of, rules tested and published work replicated. Plan: Free.

1. Open /research and pick a group.
2. Read the dated header: the book, the sample and the status of the measurement.
3. Read the table and the definitions under it, so the numbers cannot be read as something else.

How to read it:

• Every post states its sample, its method and its caveats, so it can be rebuilt from the public session files.
• Null results are published too: a level that holds as often as a random line at the same distance is reported as that.

Limits: Posts are re-measured as the archive grows and say so. None of it is investment advice.

Related: LAB: The LAB desk and the backtest · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

The day files and the dictionary#

Why: the same session files the terminal reads, as data for your own code. Where: with the licence active, Account, Plans and billing, How to download; every field on the data dictionary. Plan: The DATASET licence.

1. Fetch the day list to see which finished sessions exist.
2. Fetch each day's file with your account's token as a bearer header, from a script.
3. Look up each field on the data dictionary: its meaning, its unit, its book and the session it starts from.

What it measures: A day file is one finished SPX session as the terminal reads it: minute series, per-strike ladders and the session's levels. The dictionary lists every field of the files and every LAB column, generated from the same source the LAB compiler reads, so the two never disagree.

How to read it:

• A field's since column is the first session that carries it; a study over all sessions should start each field there.
• Times are New York time; levels are SPX index points.

Limits: Finished sessions only. Your own research only: the files are not for showing to other people.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/dataset

Related: DATASET: Three books in every file · DATASET: A new session every evening · LAB: The LAB vocabulary

Three books in every file#

Why: three readings of the same dealer positioning, side by side, and a rule that keeps them from being mixed. Where: the book tabs on the data dictionary. Plan: The DATASET licence; the dictionary is free to read.

1. Open the dictionary and pick VOLUME, MEASURED, OPEN INTEREST or NO BOOK.
2. Read the line under the book's name: how to spot its fields by suffix.
3. Compare magnitudes only inside one book.

What it measures: The volume book signs cumulative session volume by call or put (the conventional public object, built here from the tape); the open-interest book uses the morning's open interest; the measured book is signed print by print from the tape and its quotes. A field with no book (price, time, implied vol) is marked so.

How to read it:

• _volcp and _vol are the volume book, _oi the open-interest book; a neutral payload name is the measured book.
• The volume book is the default: it is what the chart draws when no book is named.
• Two books disagreeing on the regime is expected; they measure different things.

Limits: Magnitudes are never comparable across books.

Related: DATASET: The day files and the dictionary · LIVE: The three books

A new session every evening#

Why: the archive grows by one session a day, and your copy can grow with it. Where: the day list, the evening after each session. Plan: The DATASET licence.

1. After the close, fetch the day list again.
2. Fetch the new day's file; earlier days never change.
3. Fetch the calendar file too for the scheduled releases and what usually followed each kind.

What it measures: A finished session is written the evening it closes and is not rewritten afterwards, so a day you already hold stays valid.

Limits: Today's session as it trades is LIVE, not part of the files.

Related: DATASET: The day files and the dictionary · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Older days in the levels API#

Why: one account for recent levels in a chart and the long history in a study. Where: the levels API's history call, with your account's key. Plan: The DATASET licence together with LIVE's levels API.

1. Ask the levels API for a day's history as usual.
2. Days older than the API's usual window answer when the account holds the licence.

What it measures: The levels API answers the last 90 calendar days of history for an account key; a day further back needs the DATASET licence.

Limits: The free archive on the site is untouched by this rule: every finished session stays free to read there.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/live

Related: LIVE: Levels API · DATASET: The day files and the dictionary

Dataset licence#

Why: the whole archive, all three gamma books, on your own machine, with no credits and no rate limit. Where: the licence on pricing; every field in the data dictionary. Plan: The dataset licence.

1. Start the licence from pricing; delivery starts that evening.
2. Download with the token you already hold for LAB, under your licence.
3. Read each field's meaning, unit, book and start date in the data dictionary.
4. Pick the book by its suffix: the volume, measured and open-interest books are never mixed.

What it measures: Every finished SPX session minute by minute, full per-strike detail in all three books, plus the market calendar with what usually followed each kind of event. A session lands minutes after the evening build.

How to read it:

• Magnitudes are never comparable across books: a field's suffix names its book.
• A field's start date is in the dictionary; some exist only from the day they were added.

Limits: For your own research. Showing the numbers to other people is licensing. Licensed raw vendor data is never part of it.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/dataset

Related: DATASET: Licensing for your product · LAB: The LAB vocabulary · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Licensing for your product#

Why: the numbers inside your app, site, bot or paid channel, on published terms with no sales call. Where: Licensing. Plan: A redistribution licence, priced on the page.

1. Read the tiers on Licensing: levels only, the stream fifteen minutes late, or the stream in real time to an audience ceiling.
2. Press Request this licence; a countersigned email and a key follow.

How to read it:

• Attribution goes wherever the numbers are shown, with a link to firmtape.com; only the tier above 1,000 people drops it.

Limits: No tier covers a dealer-positioning terminal built on the stream, and none carries the raw vendor tape.

Related: DATASET: Dataset licence · LIVE: Levels API

The GEO list beside the chart#

Why: what was published in the last day, next to the chart and on its clock, without leaving the terminal. Where: the globe on the toolbar, or W. Plan: Free to read.

1. Press the globe on the toolbar, or W.
2. Read the last 24 hours: time ET, country, the record, its sector, and a link to its source.
3. Keep notable only on, or switch it off for every row.
4. Alert settings at the foot of the list opens the Geo alerts pane.

How to read it:

• The header counts notable and routine records and how many sources are fresh.
• A dimmed row is routine; a dot marks a notable one.
• A record is context for the session. It does not say what the market will do.

Limits: The list holds the last 24 hours; older records are on the week pages at /geo.

Related: GEO: The map and the feed · GEO: Notable only · REPLAY: Market calendar and pulse

The map and the feed#

Why: the week's public records on one map and one list, each linked to the record it came from. Where: /geo. Plan: Free to read, no account.

1. Open /geo: the map is this week, the feed under it is newest first.
2. Read the legend: red critical, amber three or more notable, cyan one or two, grey routine only; size is all records.
3. Click a country for its own page.

How to read it:

• A marker sits at the country's centre, not at the event.
• The count beside a country is its records this week.

Limits: One week a page, so no page pulls the whole history at once.

Related: GEO: Sectors and countries · GEO: Weeks

Sectors and countries#

Why: follow only the records that matter to you: a sector across the world, or every sector in one country. Where: the chips on /geo; /geo/countries for every country. Plan: Free to read, no account.

1. Pick a chip: Government, Air, GPS, Sea, Internet, Ground or Attention.
2. Open a country from the map or from /geo/countries.
3. Each sector and country page has its own weeks, like the world page.

Limits: A country page lists only the countries seen in the served history.

Related: GEO: The map and the feed · GEO: Notable only

Notable only#

Why: one unusual record should not drown in a hundred routine ones. Where: notable only in the GEO list; Notable only on every /geo page. Plan: Free to read.

1. Leave notable only on, the default.
2. Switch it off to see every row, routine ones dimmed.

What it measures: A record is notable when it stands out against its own source's normal for that country. Sources that need a normal learn it first and publish only after.

How to read it:

• A quiet list with every source fresh is a quiet day, not a gap.

Limits: Notable is a measure against the source's own history, not a judgement of importance.

Related: GEO: The GEO list beside the chart · GEO: Sources

Weeks#

Why: a finished session can be read next to what was published that week. Where: the week line under the map; the Last 30 days tiles on /geo. Plan: Free to read, no account.

1. Use the arrow on the week line for the previous week.
2. Or pick a tile under Last 30 days: each shows its records and how many were notable.
3. Every week, world and per sector, keeps its own address.

How to read it:

• The bar under a count is the share that was notable.

Limits: Weeks run Monday to Monday on the New York calendar.

Related: GEO: The map and the feed · REPLAY: The session archive and session pages

Sources#

Why: know what Geo read before trusting a quiet list. Where: /geo/sources; the source count at the top of the GEO list. Plan: Free to read, no account.

1. Open /geo/sources.
2. Read each source with its sector and when it last answered.

How to read it:

• Every record names its source and links to it.

Limits: Geo reads its own list of public sources; a record published elsewhere may not be in it.

Related: GEO: Notable only

Geo alerts#

Why: hear about the records you follow without keeping the list open. Where: Account, Geo alerts; Alert settings in the GEO list. Plan: Geo alerts plan; more rules on API and Team. Geo plans.

1. Open Account, Geo alerts.
2. Write a rule: countries, sectors, sources, notable or all. The preview shows how many records matched in the last seven days.
3. Choose email, Telegram or both, and send yourself a test alert.

How to read it:

• An alert is sent when the record is written, not on a schedule.

Limits: A plan sends nothing until it has a rule; Telegram must be connected for a rule that sends there.

Related: GEO: The GEO list beside the chart · LIVE: Telegram: @FirmTapeBot and the channel

The API, webhooks and MCP#

Why: the records as data, with every field, coordinates and source credit. Where: Account, Geo developer, on the API and Team plans; reference at /geo/docs. Plan: Geo API and Team plans. The open JSON is free.

1. REST API: the records over HTTP with a key; /geo/docs.
2. Webhooks: a signed POST when a record matches your rules; /geo/docs.
3. MCP server: an AI assistant reads the records with the same key; /geo/docs.

Limits: Reading the pages and the open JSON needs no key.

Developer reference: /docs/developers/geo

Related: GEO: Geo alerts · REPLAY: MCP server