Hedging pressure and sweeps
Hedging pressure accumulates the share-equivalent that option flow forces dealers to hedge — aggressor side times delta times size times 100 — and draws it as a signed curve around zero. Sweep and multi-leg detection feed the tags on the tape from the same pure analytics module.
Senzoukria · Documentation · Updated September 2026
Where to find it
- Where
- Option Flow page (/flow) → right column, 'Hedging Pressure · dealer share-equivalent'
- Formula
- Cumulative sum of aggressor side × delta × size × 100, in share equivalents
- Excluded
- Prints without a delta or without an identifiable side
- Minimum to draw
- 5 points; below that the panel does not render
- Bucketing
- One point per second
- Sweep rule
- ≥3 prints within 800 ms, same contract and side, across ≥2 exchanges; golden at ≥$500K
What it does
The panel reads the same window of prints as the rest of the page and accumulates, print by print, the share equivalent a dealer would have to hedge. A client buying calls leaves the dealer short those calls and short delta, so the dealer buys the underlying: the contribution is positive. Selling calls, or buying puts, pushes the curve down. The line is drawn around a zero axis and the area between the two is filled; line and fill take the colour of the current cumulative value — green when it is positive, pink when it is negative — and that value is labelled at the right edge in share equivalents.
The computation is deliberately narrow. A print that carries no delta, or whose aggressor side cannot be read, is dropped from the series rather than estimated — the module refuses to manufacture pressure out of noise. Points are bucketed to the second so a busy tape does not produce one point per print, and the panel does not render at all below five points.
The same analytics module produces the sweep and multi-leg groupings that the tape displays as badges. A sweep is a burst of aggressive prints on one contract and one side, spread over at least two exchanges within 800 milliseconds — the signature of an order too large for a single book and split by the router. Its tooltip reports the number of prints, the number of exchanges and the total premium. A sweep reaching $500K total premium is tagged GOLDEN. Multi-leg groups different contracts of the same underlying, same size, printed within 25 milliseconds of one another.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Contract multiplier | 100 | Converts contracts into share equivalents in the pressure sum |
| Eligible prints | Side is buy or sell and delta is finite | Everything else is excluded from the series |
| Series bucketing | 1 second | One plotted point per second rather than per print |
| Render floor | 5 points | Below it the panel is not shown at all |
| Sweep window | 800 ms | Maximum gap between consecutive prints of one burst |
| Sweep minimum prints | 3 | Bursts shorter than this are not tagged |
| Sweep minimum exchanges | 2 | A burst confined to one exchange is not a sweep |
| Golden threshold | $500,000 cumulative premium | Upgrades a SWEEP badge to GOLDEN |
| Multi-leg window | 25 ms, identical size, different contracts | What gets the MULTI badge |
How to use it
- Read the sign and the slope, not the absolute level: the curve starts from the oldest print still in the window, so its zero is arbitrary.
- Put the pressure curve next to the call/put race — the race says who paid, the pressure says what the hedge implies mechanically.
- Use the sweep tooltip on the tape to see how many exchanges a burst crossed before treating it as a single order.
- Treat MULTI rows as spread legs: their individual side tells you little about the structure's direction.
Limits and pitfalls
Delta comes from the provider, so a source that publishes no greeks produces no curve at all. Coverage gaps shrink the series silently in the sense that excluded prints are simply absent — they are never estimated.
This is a mechanical reading of the flow in one window, not a forecast. Dealers hedge across instruments and time, and the app has no visibility on what they actually hold. Nothing here places an order or sizes a position; the Option Flow module is analysis only, and its market data is billed by the provider.
Related pages
- Option Flow table and filters
- Premium concentration and strike ladder
- GEX assumptions
- Options flow explained
This page in other languages
Frequently asked questions
- Why is the hedging pressure panel missing entirely?
- It needs at least five eligible points. If the window holds fewer prints with both a delta and an identifiable side, the panel does not render rather than drawing a line from almost nothing.
- Is this the same as the hedging-flow indicators sold by options vendors?
- It reads the same idea, but computed locally from the prints in the window with the formula written in the panel's tooltip: aggressor side x delta x size x 100. No vendor model and no vendor data are involved, and prints without a delta or a readable side are dropped rather than estimated.
- Why is a large single print not tagged as a sweep?
- A sweep is defined by fragmentation, not by size: three or more prints within 800 ms on the same contract and side, across at least two exchanges. One large print on one venue is a block, not a sweep.