IndexFlow Terminal is a web-first options analytics workspace for intraday index and ETF analysis. It combines live market charts, options flow, strike-level positioning, volatility context, analytical heatmaps, contract monitoring, and historical session replay in one configurable interface.
IndexFlow Terminal is an analytical product. It does not provide investment advice, guarantee market outcomes, or claim to observe the true inventory of market makers or dealers.
Use Market Selector in the dockable menu and choose SPX, SPY, NDX, QQQ or VIX. The selected market becomes the active context for menu actions — existing charts and analytics remain attached to their original market. Switching from SPX to NDX does not convert an open SPX panel into NDX; it only changes the market used for the next panel. Option-contract tabs are the exception: they are temporary views tied to the active chain.
From Quick Access, select Market Chart (open or focus the primary chart) or New Chart View (add another independent chart), or use Workspace > Open Market Charts. Each chart has its own timeframe, candle or line mode, visible range, drawings, synchronization group, overlay configuration, expiry selections and heatmap settings. Up to eight independent market-chart views are supported, subject to the service's active capacity policy.
Use the menu groups Flow & Tape, Exposure & Profiles, Volatility, and Market Data & Tools. New analytics open beside the relevant market chart whenever possible and stay bound to the market they were opened for. Chart-specific settings live inside that chart's Overlays panel — the general menu opens tools; it never overrides charts already open.
Open Workspace > Workspace Presets and choose an apply mode: Replace Workspace or Add to Workspace.
The top toolbar provides global controls: Menu (opens or focuses the dockable Market Menu), Workspace (locking, presets, charts, analytics, tools, arrangements, sharing, reset) and Theme — Terminal, Dark or Grey; the theme also changes active-button colors. The Market Menu is itself a dockable panel: it can be moved, docked, grouped as a tab, floated, collapsed and reopened; collapsing preserves its dock position and leaves a compact market selector.
Expand Data diagnostics to see the age or status of individual subsystems. If a sequence gap is detected, the platform requests a resynchronization and indicates that recovery is in progress.
Intraday analytics are organized around the U.S. cash session: Regular Trading Hours 09:30–16:00 ET; 0DTE means contracts expiring during the current session; Front expiry is the nearest supported expiry, used for VIX options. Historical bars, flow histories and replay timestamps are aligned to market-event time, not the browser's local clock. Live mode uses the connected authorized market-data service; Replay mode appears when the backend has loaded an eligible recorded session. Synthetic data generation is a private QA mode only — never a public simulation mode.
VIX is an index without conventional share volume, so it has no native VWAP, uses Front-expiry language instead of equity-style 0DTE, is forward-aware and expiry-specific, and its Tape may indicate Trade + latest quote · inferred side when the provider does not deliver a complete timesale book. The option model in use is displayed in contract diagnostics.
Drag a panel by its tab title and drop it on a highlighted edge to create a split, in the center of another panel to group as tabs, outside the dock area for a floating in-app window, on an outer workspace edge for a global dock, or on a snap-layout cell to reorganize the entire workspace. While dragging, move over Swap or hold Shift, then drop onto another panel to exchange positions.
Workspace > Lock layout prevents accidental tab dragging, panel closing, split creation and floating-window movement or resizing — it does not prevent changing the active tab, timeframe, overlays or analytical settings. Workspace > Arrange Layout offers 3 Columns, 4 Columns, Quadrants, 3 × 3 and 4 × 3; extra panels remain available as grouped tabs rather than being discarded.
SPX 0DTE Execution — SPX chart, Order Flow, Sweep Tape. SPX Positioning Map — SPX chart, Positions by Strike, Positions by Expiration, Options Profile, GEX Profile. SPX + VIX Regime — SPX chart, VIX chart, Volatility & Regime, Vol-of-Vol, Choppiness. VIX Options Desk — VIX chart, Positions by Strike, Positions by Expiration, Options Profile, Tape.
Save Current as Custom Preset stores the current configuration locally in the browser (one slot). It contains layout and interface preferences only — no live market data, raw option chains, credentials or provider tokens. Share setup creates a bounded configuration transferable without embedding data or credentials; always review markets, expiry scopes, heatmap mode, scenario settings and sync groups after loading one.
Timeframes: M1 · M5 · M15 · M30 · H1 · H4 · D1 — changing timeframe affects only that chart view. In Candles mode the active candle is not a static once-per-minute object: it evolves as source-price updates arrive, showing the developing body, live high and low, wick formation and intrabar reactions around option-derived levels.
Line mode displays price at the highest update frequency currently available from the fast stream: it keeps completed intraday history, adds sub-minute samples, follows the newest update while Follow live is enabled, pauses after manual pan or zoom and resumes after Reset view. The chart does not invent intermediate ticks — if the source changes every 100 ms, the line reflects that cadence; if slower, it updates at the actual available rate.
Drag the chart to pan, wheel to zoom, drag the X axis to change the time range, drag the Y axis to change the price scale, double-click the Y axis to reset. Axis interactions are isolated to the active chart. Each chart can join sync group A, B or C: compatible charts share the visible time viewport and vertical crosshair but not the Y-axis scale, overlays, drawings, analytical requests or expiry filters — useful for SPX vs VIX, SPY vs SPX, NDX vs QQQ. The Draw menu offers Pointer, Crosshair, Trend line, Horizontal line, Rectangle and Measure, plus Undo last and Clear drawings; drawings belong to the chart's market context and are stored with local preferences.
The Overlays button sits inside every market chart; the number beside it shows how many overlay features are active. Overlay preferences are unique to each chart instance — enabling Gamma Flip on one SPX chart does not enable it on another SPX, SPY or NDX chart.
Converts the latest eligible pre-session option structure into an opening-session map: a balance reference, upside and downside test levels, sticky zones, charm direction, gamma intensity landmarks, the current short-dated straddle context, and confidence / input-quality information.
Recommended use: start with Open / Confluence / Base / Medium; note the balance level and first test on each side; compare Base with Compression and Expansion; raise confidence to High to isolate the strongest references; during RTH switch to Compare. Never use a single level in isolation — combine with price acceptance, volatility regime, tape and flow.
The historical heatmap builds a minute-by-minute view across strikes in discrete market-time columns. Greek modes: GEX or Charm. Source modes: OI (structural exposure from the available open-interest state) or Flow (the session's inferred traded activity).
A categorical heatmap highlighting exactly four structural references (SPX, SPY, NDX, QQQ — not VIX):
Call Wall / Put Wall are the strikes with the largest aggregated 0DTE call / put open interest. Intentionally OI-based — not a claim that all calls are dealer resistance or all puts dealer support.
Gamma Flip estimates the price area where the selected gamma state changes sign. Options: current flip, flip history, OI-based mode, flow-based GEX mode; expiry scope 0DTE/Front, All, or a specific expiry. The historical line shows whether the flip is stable, drifting or reacting to changing inputs. A model-derived transition level — not an observed order or guaranteed turning point.
Greek Overlay attaches a classified strike profile to the price axis: GEX · GEX Flow · Delta · Gamma · Vega · Theta · Charm · Charm Flow. Structural Greeks describe the selected option structure from current eligible inputs; Flow Greeks describe the Greek character of session trades after aggressor inference. Every Greek has its own unit — values from different Greeks are not comparable on one scale.
A strike-by-time analytical surface displayed directly over the market chart, in GEX or Charm mode. Contrast changes the visual separation between weaker and stronger regions — visualization intensity only, never the underlying data. The P/T threshold controls which peaks and troughs are emphasized: higher values reduce noise and show fewer, stronger structures; lower values expose more local detail. The map can display peak regions, trough regions and the zero-transition contour. The same map opens as a standalone panel with interactive axes; a new configuration may briefly show a calculation status.
Implied volatility by strike (X axis) and IV percentage (Y axis), with expiry as a selectable curve. Use it to inspect skew, smile shape, differences between expiries and unusually elevated or depressed strike regions. Only contracts passing the current data-quality and coverage requirements are displayed — missing points are not zero volatility.
Tape bubbles place qualifying option prints on the market chart. Filters: expiry; All / Buy / Sell; All / Calls / Puts; Sweeps only; minimum premium; opacity. Size and emphasis reflect the print's importance under the selected filters; the displayed side is inferred from trade and quote context, not a guaranteed maker/taker label.
Bubble Positioning summarizes large-print activity relative to spot at trade time, strike, call/put type, inferred side and expiry — premium-weighted, above versus below spot. Bubble Hedge converts selected large-print patterns into a cumulative defensive-versus-risk-on indicator: positive regions emphasize hedge-like activity, negative regions risk-on activity — a behavioral classification, not proof of intent. Bubble analytics can use a selected Gamma Flip expiry as regime boundary; changing it affects classification context only, never the price series.
A real-time ranking of the selected market's leading short-dated contracts (0DTE; Front expiry for VIX), divided into Most bought — purple and Most sold — cyan by net aggressor-premium classification (calls purple, puts cyan). Sort modes: Net (signed buy–sell premium difference), Total (all traded premium), Volume, OI (latest official open interest — normally an overnight dataset, not a real-time count).
Hover a row for contract identifier, bid, ask, last, inferred buy/sell premium, net and total premium, volume and open interest. Click a contract to open its mini chart — one-minute history from 09:30 ET, live option-price updates, bid/ask/last, metadata, IV and Greeks when available, data timestamp and pricing-model label. Click the mini chart for a large dockable contract chart. Multiple Top Options stay open simultaneously; reopening restores the available session history rather than starting a new series.
Ranks option contracts by aggressor-inferred activity. The headline shows bullish pressure, bearish pressure, net directional pressure and the bullish share of observed activity. Expiry filter: 0DTE/Front, all supported expiries, or a specific expiry. Sort: Net, Total, Volume, Open interest. Columns: Contract, Buy premium, Sell premium, Net premium, Total premium, Volume, Open interest.
The default view emphasizes larger prints; enable Full tape (all orders) for the full retained stream. Rows show market time, strike, call/put, inferred side, size, execution price, premium and expiry class. Expiry filter: 0DTE/Front, another near expiry, or both. A sweep is a rapid sequence of qualifying prints on the same contract and inferred side within the active window — grouped visually with combined premium. Sweep detection identifies execution urgency, not common ownership. Whale voice alerts notify audibly when a sweep exceeds the displayed premium threshold; the first snapshot after connecting sets the baseline, so old sweeps are not announced.
Transport quality is always stated: Timesale book (supported timesale stream), Trade + latest quote · inferred side (direction estimated from the latest eligible quote), Synthetic QA (private test data only). VIX Raw Timesales (diagnostic) shows provider frames verbatim — possibly duplicated, never deduplicated, excluded from Sweeps, Order Flow, Convexity and Replay analytics.
Tracks the gamma character of eligible option trades from the inferred customer-aggressor perspective; the backend keeps processing even when the panel is hidden. Controls: Window (time horizon), Peaks (per-trade Convexity Peaks), peak colors by Call / Put or Long / Short, and Inferred dealer (opposite) — the mathematical opposite of the customer estimate, not observed inventory.
Two projections of the same shared position-analytics state: by Strike locates the price levels where the selected exposure concentrates; by Expiration shows its distribution through the term structure. Expiry scope: 0DTE/Front, Front, Next, All tracked. Where enough session points exist, an intraday history precedes the ladder.
SPX and SPY use VIX-based context; NDX and QQQ use VXN; VIX uses its own VIX/VVIX context. The platform never substitutes VVIX as a Nasdaq vol-of-vol index — unavailable data is stated as unavailable. Standalone charts provide larger intraday views of VIX, VXN, VVIX and Choppiness.
Open Option Inspector, enter the OCC contract symbol, select Inspect or press Enter, review the diagnostics, then Open chart for a dockable contract chart (M1 history from 09:30 ET, live price sample, interactive axes). Diagnostics can include bid, ask, last, underlying, strike, call/put, expiration, pricing-model label, IV, Delta, Gamma, Vega, Theta, Rho, Charm, implied dividend yield or equivalent input, and data age. Unavailable values are shown as unavailable — never fabricated.
Reconstructs a recorded session using event-time data captured by the backend; controls appear only when the backend runs in Replay mode. The catalog shows session date, included markets, event count, storage size, gap count, input completeness, OI coverage, audit information and readiness — with statuses READY, GAPS, INPUT WARN, INCOMPLETE, ACTIVE. Never treat GAPS or INCOMPLETE sessions as complete market representations.
Load prepares the session and synchronizes the workspace with the replay clock. Play/Pause use source event time, including milliseconds when available. Speed modes 25% / 50% / 75% / Max scale throughput relative to the fastest safe reconstruction rate — not literal real-time multiples. Move the Timeline and select Build history: every recorded event up to the target is reconstructed, chart and analytical state rebuilt, then paused — not a visual jump that skips analytical history. Preload shortcuts: +15m, +30m, +60m, +120m. Replay prioritizes the markets present in the workspace; a chart opened mid-replay is reconstructed up to the current replay time. Fidelity requires the inputs to have been recorded, ordered, timestamped and complete — missing trades, quotes, OI, IV or metadata are never invented.
The browser retains theme, dock layout, menu state, chart configurations, overlay preferences, drawings, workspace lock, panel-to-market bindings, per-panel expiry scopes and the custom preset. Clearing browser storage or switching profile may remove them. The backend maintains the shared analytical state; selected intraday aggregates and replay inputs may persist across a restart, subject to service configuration, provider coverage, recording health, retention policy and licensing. A workspace share or custom preset never intentionally includes authentication tokens, provider credentials, gateway secrets, raw option chains, market-event databases or contract-watch histories.
0DTE — an option expiring during the current trading session.
ATM / ITM / OTM — at / in / out of the money relative to the underlying price.
Bounded history — a retained history with a defined maximum size for stable resource use.
Call Wall / Put Wall — the strike with the largest aggregated call / put open interest in the selected short-dated scope.
Charm — the change in Delta associated with the passage of time.
Choppiness — a 0–100 regime measure separating trending from mean-reverting conditions.
Confluence — agreement evaluation between OI Structure and Inferred Flow.
Convexity — the nonlinear change in directional sensitivity as the underlying moves.
Delta / Gamma / Vega / Theta — sensitivity to price, to Delta change, to implied volatility, to time.
DEX / GEX — delta / gamma exposure in the platform's selected cash-equivalent context.
Front expiry — the nearest supported expiry; used prominently for VIX options.
Gamma Flip — a model-derived price area where aggregate gamma changes sign.
Implied Move — the move implied by the selected short-dated option market.
Inferred Customer / Dealer (opposite) — a participant-side estimate from execution-versus-quote behavior, and its mathematical opposite.
M1 — one-minute market-time aggregation.
Max Pain — the OI-based strike area with the lowest aggregate option payout in scope.
OI / OI Structure — official open interest, and its non-directional distribution across strikes or expiries.
PDH / PDL — Previous Day High / Low.
Peak / Trough — locally significant high / low intensity regions in an analytical surface.
Premium Flow — option activity expressed through the premium of eligible executions.
RTH — Regular Trading Hours, 09:30–16:00 ET for the U.S. cash session.
Sweep — a rapid group of qualifying prints on the same contract and inferred side.
Vanna — the relationship between directional sensitivity and implied volatility.
Volatility Surface — implied volatility across strikes and expiries.
VWAP — session volume-weighted average price.
VXN / VVIX — the Nasdaq-100 volatility index; the volatility-of-volatility index for VIX.
Options involve substantial risk. Market data can be delayed, corrected, incomplete or unavailable; open interest is not a real-time inventory; aggressor classification is an estimate; inferred customer activity does not reveal intent; inferred dealer activity is not observed inventory; model-derived levels are not guaranteed support or resistance; scenarios are not forecasts; historical replay does not guarantee future performance; no indicator should be the sole basis for a trade. Always consider liquidity, spread, execution quality, transaction costs, volatility, time decay, event risk and personal risk tolerance. IndexFlow Terminal is an analytical platform and does not provide personalized investment, legal, tax or financial advice.
When reporting an issue include: market, date and market time, LIVE/WARMING/STALE status, panel or overlay name, selected expiry and mode, a screenshot, Live or Replay, replay session status if applicable, browser and OS. Never include provider tokens, account passwords, private gateway credentials or full authentication headers.