Pre-trade 2-minute scan

You've made it through 10 lessons. You know the markers, the regimes, how to read the heatmap, how to combine GEX with your existing TA, why Friday matters, and when to ignore the chart entirely.

This lesson is the capstone. It compresses everything you've learned into a 5-step pre-trade scan you can run in under 2 minutes before any trade.

The scan won't tell you what to trade. It tells you whether to trade — and if so, with what size and conviction.

The scan

Run these five steps in order. Each takes 15-30 seconds.

Step 1: Regime check

Open GammaFlip. Find the Flip point.

• Price above Flip → sticky regime → walls work, mean-reversion bias
• Price below Flip → jumpy regime → momentum bias, watch N-walls
• Price on Flip → transition → reduce conviction, watch for a clean break

This is non-negotiable. Every interpretation that follows depends on it. (Lesson 2)

Step 2: Level inventory

Write down four numbers from the chart:

1. Flip point (your regime boundary)
2. P1 / P1★ (strongest stabilizing wall)
3. P2 (closer secondary wall — often more relevant than P1 if P1 is far away)
4. N1 (nearest negative wall — your stop reference)

Skip A1/A2 unless it's Thursday-Friday (Lesson 5). On regular days, P/N markers are enough. (Lessons 3, 4, 6)

Step 3: Confluence check

Look at the chart for gold ★ markers. Are any nearby?

• A confluent level within reach of price → high-conviction zone, prioritize for entry/exit
• No stars nearby → solo markers only, normal conviction
• Multiple stars far away → useful as targets, less useful as entries

If your trade plan involves a starred level, you've got two independent signals agreeing. That's the structural edge. (Lesson 6)

Step 4: TA overlay

Switch to your normal chart (TradingView, etc.). Draw the four GEX levels as horizontal lines.

Now check: where's your trade idea relative to the GEX levels?

• TA + GEX agree → full conviction
• TA isolated, no GEX nearby → tactical only, smaller size
• GEX-only level → still actionable, but flag as "stealth" — other traders aren't seeing it

(Lesson 8)

Step 5: Reliability check

Five quick questions before you click:

1. Macro event in next 60 min? → if yes, step aside
2. BTC moving >2% in last 30 min? → if yes, wait for stability
3. OI looks normal? (check the OI metric) → if no, halve size
4. Within 60 min of Friday 08:00 UTC? → if yes, wait
5. Multiple venues agreeing? (Deribit, Bybit, OKX) → if no, lower conviction

Any "no" on this list = reduce conviction. Two or more "no"s = consider stepping aside. (Lesson 10)

Putting it all together: a worked example

Let's run the full scan on a hypothetical Wednesday afternoon:

Setup: BTC at $94,000. You're considering a long entry from your TA.

Step 1 — Regime: Flip is at $93,200. Price above Flip → sticky regime. Mean-reversion framework applies.

Step 2 — Levels: P1★ = $96,500, P2 = $95,200, N1 = $92,800.

Step 3 — Confluence: P1 has a star at $96,500. Strong overhead target.

Step 4 — TA overlay: Your TA had resistance pegged at $96,400. Aligns with P1★ within $100. Strong confluence — TA + GEX + ★ all agree.

Step 5 — Reliability check: Mid-week, no macro events, normal OI, all venues agree. All clear.

Trade decision: - Long at $94,000 - Stop just below N1 at $92,800 (-1.3%) - Take profit 1: P2 at $95,200 (+1.3%) - Take profit 2: P1★ at $96,500 (+2.7%) - Full size — every signal aligns

The scan didn't generate the trade idea. Your TA did. The scan grades it.

When the scan says "skip"

Most of your work as a trader is saying no to bad setups. The scan is built to surface those quickly.

A trade fails the scan when:

• You're in a jumpy regime but want to fade rallies (mean-reversion in jumpy = structurally wrong trade type)
• Your entry sits between unrelated GEX levels with no nearby ★ confluence
• A macro event is imminent
• It's Friday morning and your thesis ignores A1
• Multiple reliability checks come back yellow

If the scan flags two or more concerns, the right move is almost always to skip. You'll get another setup tomorrow. The structural read protects you from forcing trades during conditions where the framework doesn't apply.

Building the habit

The first 50 times you run this scan, it'll feel slow. Maybe 4-5 minutes per check. That's fine.

After 200-300 trades, it compresses to 60-90 seconds. You stop reading; you glance and recognize patterns. The five steps become automatic — regime, levels, confluence, TA, reliability.

Two suggestions for building the habit:

1. Print the 5-step list. Stick it on your monitor. Refer to it for the first 2-3 weeks until it's internalized.
2. Journal the scan output for every trade. Write down the regime, four levels, confluence flag, TA agreement, reliability score. After 30-50 trades, you'll see which scan results predict which outcomes — that's where conviction calibration starts.

The end of Track 1

You started with a chart full of colored bars. You now have a structured framework for reading any GEX chart, layering it on top of your TA, and grading every trade through a repeatable scan.

If you stop here, you have what most perp traders never have: a structural read. You can identify levels other traders can't see, you know when the framework applies, and you have a routine that cuts through noise.

If you want to go deeper, Track 2 — Options Curious covers the why: dealer hedging, gamma mechanics, and how the structural forces you've been using actually emerge from option positioning. It's optional. Plenty of perp traders use Track 1 forever and never need more.

Either way: you're done with the introductory mechanics. From here, the work is repetition.

Quick mnemonic

Regime → Levels → Confluence → TA → Reliability. Five steps, two minutes, every trade.

Run it before every entry. The setups that pass the scan are the ones worth your size. The ones that fail are the ones you're glad you skipped tomorrow.