Positive and negative gamma

Also called Gamma regime, long gamma, short gamma, positive gamma, negative gamma

Whether total dealer gamma at the current price is positive, so hedging damps moves, or negative, so hedging can stretch them.

The gamma regime is the sign of total dealer gamma exposure at the current price.

• Positive gamma (dealers long gamma): as price rises, dealers' delta grows and they sell to stay hedged; as it falls, they buy. Their flow leans against the move. Ranges tend to hold and dips get bought.
• Negative gamma (dealers short gamma): dealers buy as price rises and sell as it falls. Their flow goes with the move, which is how a sell-off can feed on itself.

The boundary between the two is zero gamma.

Reading it

The regime is about how moves behave, not their direction. Positive gamma doesn't mean up, and negative doesn't mean down. A positive-gamma market can trend lower slowly; a negative-gamma market can rally hard.

It's also only as good as the estimate under it. On a heavy 0DTE day, positions opened that morning aren't in the open interest yet, so the real regime can differ.

In Theta Vantage

The chip in the Levels card's header ("Positive gamma", "Negative gamma") and the read. On Pro the chip follows the live price between snapshots. A watcher can tell you when dealer gamma turns.