What the Vol Trigger is
The Vol Trigger is a specific price. When the stock is ABOVE it, dealer hedging tends to suppress volatility (small moves, range-bound). When the stock is BELOW it, dealer hedging amplifies volatility (bigger swings, trends extend).
You see it as an amber pill in the row at the top of the GEX-by-Strike chart, next to Spot, Gamma Flip, and Max Pain.
How is this different from the Gamma Flip?
Gamma Flip is the price where dealer net gamma equals zero. It is the simpler version of the same idea: above it, dealers stabilize, below it, dealers amplify.
The Vol Trigger goes further. It also accounts for the fact that as the stock moves down, the implied volatility (IV) usually goes UP. That IV move changes the dealer's hedging math. The Vol Trigger captures both effects (gamma AND IV sensitivity), so it is more accurate than the Gamma Flip alone.
In normal markets, the two prices are pretty close. When you see the chevron next to the Vol Trigger (the small bracket symbol followed by 'Flip'), it means they are within 0.25% of each other. The IV skew effect is small that day.
In stressed markets (single names heading into earnings, indexes with steep downside skew), the two can be 0.5% to 2% apart. That gap can matter intraday.
How to read it on the chart
The Pill: shows the price (e.g., $5,010). If you see 'Vol Trigger Flip' with the chevron, the trigger has converged with the gamma flip.
The dashed line: drawn on the GEX-by-Strike chart at the Vol Trigger price. It is beneath the solid Gamma Flip line so you can see both.
What to actually do
If the stock is ABOVE the Vol Trigger: dealers are stabilizing. Vol gets sold into rallies. Tight ranges. This is when sell-premium strategies (iron condors, credit spreads) tend to work. The market is calm and grinding.
If the stock is BELOW the Vol Trigger: dealers are amplifying. Vol gets bought into selloffs. Wider swings. This is when momentum and long-gamma trades work. Buy options and ride the move.
When the stock crosses the Vol Trigger: that is often the start (or end) of a trending day. If you are long the underlying and it just broke below the trigger, expect more downside. If you are short and it just broke above, expect more upside.
When the chevron is showing (Vol Trigger and Gamma Flip converged at the same price), the cross is even more reliable, because both effects flip at the same level.
What if there is no Pill?
A few cases where the Vol Trigger will not appear:
You are on a Lite plan. Pro-only feature.
You are in post-OPEX projection mode. The trigger is not computed for the projected (hypothetical) chain, only for the live chain. The pill is replaced by 'Vol Trigger not available in post-OPEX projection.'
The chain does not have enough data. Some tickers have very thin options markets. If the trigger cannot be computed reliably, the pill is hidden.
The methodology in plain terms
The platform finds the price where the dealer's reason to buy stock cancels out their reason to sell stock, including the boost from the IV-skew effect.
The math sweeps prices from minus 5% to plus 5% of the current spot price, finds the crossing points, and zooms in to 0.01% precision. The closest crossing to the current spot price wins.
Honest note
This is not a clone of SpotGamma's Vol Trigger (their methodology is proprietary). This is a first-principles version built from scratch using a published dealer-side equation. The math is open, the assumptions are documented, the result is auditable.