how every number is made

Nothing on the broadcast is proprietary or secret. Every metric below can be recomputed by anyone with public data and a calculator (or, for the volume ones, a trade feed). If a number on the site ever can't be traced to a formula on this page, that's a bug — tell us.

the line
Yesterday's high, low and close, averaged. The middle of yesterday's action and the day's line of scrimmage: above it buyers own the field, below it sellers do. Known to floor traders for decades as the pivot point.
the line = (yesterday's high + yesterday's low + yesterday's close) ÷ 3
honesty note: inputs are the regular session only (9:30–4:00 ET, close = the 4:00pm closing auction). including pre/after hours will give you different numbers.
resistance and support (R1, R2, S1, S2)
Estimates of how far a normal day and a big day stretch, scaled from yesterday's range. Not magic prices — projections of yesterday's volatility onto today.
R1 = 2×line − yesterday's low R2 = line + (yesterday's high − yesterday's low) S1 = 2×line − yesterday's high S2 = line − (yesterday's high − yesterday's low)
honesty note: we tested 501 sessions: price bounces off these levels about as often as off random nearby prices. they are a shared map, not a force. on range days every line 'works' (56% of touches), on trend days almost none do (39%).
yesterday's high / low / close
No formula at all. Yesterday's actual extremes and finish, written down. They matter because everyone remembers them.
taken directly from the official regular session
aggression
Of all SPY shares traded in the last 15 minutes, the percentage that traded on upticks (buyers reaching up, lifting offers) versus downticks (sellers reaching down, hitting bids). It measures who is being impatient right now.
each trade is compared with the previous trade price: higher → counted as buyer-aggressive volume lower → counted as seller-aggressive volume same price → inherits the previous side (tick rule) aggression = buyer volume ÷ total classified volume, rolling 15 minutes
honesty note: the tick rule is an approximation of true trade side (the standard academic method is Lee-Ready). classification is imperfect on roughly 10–15% of trades. directional reading, not a precision instrument.
possession
Which side of the line price is trading on, and for how long. Field position, not momentum.
possession = buyers when price > the line, sellers when below · duration = time since the last cross
volume pace
Whether trading is heating up or drying up, with the actual share counts.
last 5 minutes' shares per minute vs the whole day's average shares per minute · flagged when the ratio is above 1.6 or below 0.55
rsi
A standard 0–100 momentum gauge on one-minute bars. Over 70 reads overheated, under 30 reads stretched. Mentioned only when it's at an extreme.
14-period RSI on 1-minute closes (Wilder's), straight from the data feed
honesty note: descriptive of recent movement only. we have found no evidence it predicts what happens next at this timescale.
options pit alerts
Contracts trading far more than their existing open interest with serious money behind them — new positioning placed today.
alert when: volume ≥ 10,000 contracts AND volume ≥ 2× open interest AND premium traded ≥ $1M (premium = volume × price × 100)
honesty note: volume never reveals direction. a giant print can be a buyer or a seller, opening or closing, or one leg of a spread. we report the action, never the intent — the tape doesn't say which way. it never does.
expected move (the pit's pricing)
What the options market itself charges for the rest of the day's movement — the at-the-money straddle.
expected move ≈ price of the ATM call + price of the ATM put, nearest expiry
honesty note: this is the market's own forecast, not ours. we report it so it can be graded against what actually happens.

Every interpretive claim by the booth carries a confirmation condition and gets graded on the public scorecard (coming soon). Educational market commentary, not investment advice.

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