0DTE options

0DTE options are contracts that expire on the day they are traded (zero days to expiry). Their gamma is concentrated at the strike and changes quickly with spot, which makes them a large and unstable component of intraday gamma exposure estimates.

Senzoukria · Glossary · Updated September 2026

Definition and where they trade

A 0DTE option is any contract on its last trading day. The term became common once major index products listed an expiry for every weekday, so that a same-day contract is available each session rather than only on Fridays. The contract itself is ordinary; what is specific is the time profile: almost all of its remaining value is intrinsic or very near-the-money time value, and it settles within hours.

Because they are cheap in premium and expire quickly, 0DTE contracts are used for intraday directional bets, for short-dated hedges and for premium selling. None of those uses can be told apart from the tape alone.

Why 0DTE gamma behaves differently

  • Gamma per contract is highest at the strike and falls off within a few strikes; a small move in spot moves a strike from the centre of the gamma peak to its edge.
  • A modeled net exposure that includes same-day contracts can change sign several times in a session as spot crosses those strikes; the guide on the gamma flip explains why a curve may cross zero more than once.
  • Open interest for a 0DTE expiry is published from the prior close, so positions opened during the session are invisible in that field; volume is the only intraday footprint.
  • At settlement the entire expiry disappears from the chain, and any level computed with it stops applying.

Reading GEX with 0DTE in the chain

Two readings of the same underlying can disagree simply because one includes the same-day expiry and the other does not. When a dashboard shows a flip or a wall, check which expiries were summed and at what time. A flip level computed with 0DTE contracts in the morning has usually moved by the afternoon; treat it as a snapshot with a timestamp, not a level for the day.

Since the sign of the exposure depends on an assumption about which side dealers hold, the 0DTE component inherits the same caveat: the positioning is modeled, not observed.

In Senzoukria

The Option Flow feed displays each print's DTE, so same-day contracts can be filtered by eye or by the Type and Size filters; the feed's own hint notes that a 0 DTE bet and a six-month position are not the same trade. The GEX module's "Gamma profile by price" page recomputes the exposure at every price rather than only at the current spot, which is where the instability of near-dated gamma becomes visible; the Surface page ("Gamma through the session") records one column per minute so a wall being built or a hollow deepening can be watched as the session progresses.

Whether the same-day expiry is present depends on what the configured options source returns; the module reports when too few legs are available to draw a curve.

Common mistakes

  • Carrying a morning flip level computed with 0DTE contracts into the afternoon without recomputing.
  • Reading a burst of same-day call volume as a directional bet; it may be a hedge, a spread leg or a closing trade.
  • Comparing a total GEX that includes the daily expiry with one that does not.
  • Treating missing open interest on a fresh 0DTE strike as zero exposure.

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Frequently asked questions

Do 0DTE options make the gamma flip move during the day?
They can. Same-day contracts carry gamma that is high at the strike and small elsewhere, so as spot moves the net modeled exposure shifts and the price where it crosses zero shifts with it. A flip estimate that includes 0DTE contracts should be read with its computation time.
Is 0DTE open interest useful intraday?
Only as a starting point. Open interest is published once, from the prior close, so positions opened in the session do not appear in it. For same-day contracts the relevant intraday information is traded volume, which shows turnover but not whether positions remain open.
Are 0DTE options available on futures?
Options on index futures and options on the cash index or ETF are different products with different expiry calendars. Before applying a 0DTE level to an ES or NQ chart, identify which product the chain describes and convert the strike scale and basis.

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