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Price Dynamics
Options
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Structure
Price Dynamics
Swing Velocity
The speed of price movement between turning points: how fast price travels from one swing high or low to the next, expressed as a session percentile.
Swing Acceleration
Whether each successive swing happens faster or slower than the previous one: the rate of change of velocity, revealing whether momentum is building or fading.
Statistical Extreme
A price move or metric reading that falls beyond normal ranges for the current session, typically two or more standard deviations from the session mean.
Acceptance
Price consolidating at a level for an extended period, indicating the market has agreed on fair value at that price and buyers and sellers are in equilibrium.
Rejection
Price approaching a level and retreating quickly, indicating the market has disagreed with that price and one side overwhelmed the other immediately.
Price Clustering
Zones where the highest concentration of trading activity occurred during a session, representing real support and resistance built from actual market participation rather than visual chart patterns.
Time at Price
The proportion of session time that price spends at specific levels, with extended time signalling market acceptance and brief visits signalling rejection or fast movement through thin zones.
Move Symmetry Score
A measure of how much price retraces against the trend direction for every point it moves in the trend direction, scored 0 to 1 where lower scores indicate stronger directional dominance.
Pullback Depth
How far price retraces against the prevailing trend before resuming, measured as a percentage of the prior impulse move using Fibonacci reference levels.
Options
Gamma Exposure (GEX)
The aggregate measure of how much options market makers must buy or sell the underlying to maintain delta neutrality: the invisible mechanical force that creates price floors, ceilings, and regime behavior that never appears on any standard chart.
Open Interest (OI)
The total number of outstanding options contracts at a specific strike and expiry, representing the aggregate of all open positions at that price level.
Max Pain
The strike price at which the maximum number of options contracts would expire worthless: the theoretical settlement point of maximum loss for option buyers and maximum profit for option sellers.
Implied Volatility (IV)
The market's expectation of future price volatility derived from current option prices: a measure of what the market is pricing in, not a forecast of what will happen.
India VIX
India's volatility index, measuring the market's expectation of 30-day NIFTY price volatility derived from NIFTY option prices across near-term expiry strikes.
Put-Call Ratio (PCR)
The ratio of put options volume or open interest to call options volume or open interest: a sentiment indicator showing the market's aggregate directional lean at a given moment.
Delta Hedging
The process by which options market makers continuously buy and sell the underlying asset to offset the directional exposure created by the options positions they hold.
Options Greeks
Four sensitivity measures â delta, gamma, theta, and vega â that describe how an option's price responds to changes in underlying price, rate of price change, time, and volatility respectively.
IV Crush
The rapid collapse in implied volatility (and therefore option premiums) that occurs immediately after an anticipated event resolves, regardless of the direction or magnitude of the price move.
Flow
Options Flow
The real-time stream of all executed options trades: the full tape of institutional and retail positioning across strikes, expiries, and premium sizes.
Cumulative Volume Delta (CVD)
The running total of aggressive buying volume minus aggressive selling volume, revealing the true balance of power between buyers and sellers beneath the surface of price.
OBV Slope
The rate of change in On-Balance Volume, indicating whether cumulative buying volume is systematically exceeding selling volume (accumulation) or the reverse (distribution).
Unusual Options Activity (UOA)
Options trades that deviate significantly from normal patterns at a specific strike, characterised by volume multiples of existing open interest, large premium expenditure, or aggressive sweep execution.
Dark Pool
Private trading venues where institutional orders are executed away from public exchanges, representing approximately 35â40% of US equity volume and leaving traces in public options flow through subsequent hedging activity.
Accumulation / Distribution
The process by which institutional participants quietly build positions (accumulation) or quietly exit them (distribution) over an extended period, often invisible in price until the final move reveals the prior activity.
Time at Price
The proportion of session time that price spends at specific levels, with extended time signalling market acceptance and brief visits signalling rejection or fast movement through thin zones.
Structure
Fair Value Gap (FVG)
A three-candle pattern in which the first and third candle's ranges do not overlap, creating a price zone where the market moved so aggressively that the gap represents an area of unresolved order imbalance.
Order Block
The last opposing candle before a strong impulsive price move: the zone where institutions placed the large orders that propelled price, and where those interests often re-emerge when price returns.
Volume Profile
A horizontal histogram showing the volume of trading activity at each price level over a defined period, revealing where the market accepted value and where it rejected price.
VWAP
Volume-Weighted Average Price: the average price of an instrument weighted by the volume traded at each price level, used by institutions as the benchmark for evaluating execution quality throughout the session.
NOTE
This glossary is updated quarterly. Terms reflect Draconic's analytical framework and standard industry definitions where applicable. For the full trading intelligence methodology, see the Tradecraft guides and Blog.