The Setups

A single dominant 👑 KING with the spot orbiting it tightly. No 🛡️ Sentinel and no nearby ⚡ STORM. Magnets cluster around one strike, drawing price into a narrow range.

• Sell premium against the range, short calls above the KING, short puts below (read the premium-selling note below first)
• Fade rejections at the range extremes back to the KING
• Skip the middle, symmetric R:R, no edge

Buying calls or puts. Theta crushes any directional bet when price is pinned.

A 👑 KING above (or below) spot with little structure on the opposite side. No ⚡ STORM in band to threaten. Path of least resistance points to the magnet.

• Bias positions in the direction of the KING
• If price pulls back to spot, accumulate; KING gravity reasserts
• Exit when price reaches the KING, that's the magnet's job done

Index Sync agreement. If SPX/SPY/QQQ don't agree, the Drift is unreliable, broader tape may overwhelm one symbol's structure.

A 👑 KING above + an ⚡ STORM below + spot anchored between them. The magnet pulls price up; the amplifier threatens cascade down. Range-bound until something breaks.

• Premium sellers: short strangles around the range (read the premium-selling note below first)
• Day traders: fade $750 from above, fade $740 from below
• If price loses $740 with volume → STORM cascade is live, get out of long premium

The 🎯 FLIP line. If it's near spot, the Sandwich becomes unstable, small range break flips the whole regime.

Stack of negative GEX strikes below spot with no MAGNET or FLOOR breaking the chain. An ⚡ STORM sits at the bottom of the stack. Path opens for momentum if the trigger fires.

• Don't pre-position. Wait for the trigger to print, volume + a real break of the closest positive strike
• After trigger: cheap puts at the next strike below trigger, defined risk
• Target: the STORM level. Take profit there; cascade exhausts at the amp

Spot must break the first positive strike with volume + macro/news confirmation. Without a trigger, price oscillates above and theta destroys put premium.

Competing structures across the band, multiple KINGs and STORMs in conflict, no clear dominant level, map state is SHIFTING, or Index Sync is diverged. The geometry is incoherent.

• Nothing. No-Read is the most disciplined trade of the week
• Watch for one structure to dominate (a clear King emerges, others fade)
• Re-engage only when the picture resolves, usually within 30-60 min

No-Read sessions destroy more accounts than any specific bad trade. Forcing positions during No-Read is how disciplined traders become emotional ones. The best traders sit out 1-2 days per week.

A range shape invites premium selling, so we tested it on real SPX option prices, not models. Opening 0DTE credit spreads, strangles or iron flies during the session and managing them with profit targets and stops lost money in every variant we tried, including choosing the structure by regime. Selling premium at the close and buying it back at the next open held up, and so did monthly put-writing. Both are now paper-traded before anyone should size them.

• Treat "sell premium against the range" as a way to read the map, not proof that intraday premium selling pays.
• Defined risk only. A naked short option can lose far more than the credit it pays.

Its rules are written down before the backtest runs, it has to pass on real prices, and then it trades on paper under fixed risk limits while Kairos grades every trade. None of these are signals or part of a plan. Results go public once the forward sample is large enough. A strategy that loses in every sample is retired: the 0DTE credit desk was retired this way in October 2026.

• Failed breakdown (SPX). After a fast flush, price loses a significant low, fails to hold below it, and recovers it. A long from the recovery, managed level to level, using the day's published ES levels converted to SPX, with no new entries from 11:00 to 2:00 ET.
• VWAP reclaim (SPY, 5-minute). In trending or transitioning tape, a pullback through VWAP that is reclaimed on volume.
• Overnight iron fly (SPX). Premium sold near the close, bought back after the next open, one defined-risk position at a time.
• Mantis dealer-read book. Mantis swing ideas taken only when the dealer map has leaned the same way for weeks.
• SPX dark pool "magnet" fade, retired to shadow (2026-10-19). The SPX agent used to fade price back toward a dark pool print it had left. On 962 graded cards it lost in both directions (about −11% a trade as 0DTE options), worst when the print stood alone or the fade went against the day's trend. These cards no longer publish; they are recorded in shadow so the one variant worth watching (a print that is also a dealer level, faded with the day's trend: 32 cards so far) builds a forward record.
• VWAP reversion (SPY). When SPY is stretched a full normal-move away from VWAP, fade it back toward VWAP, but only on the kind of day where that has held up in testing: after a wide prior day with a volatile first half hour, when SPY is well below the prior day's high, or after a sharp one-hour move. Paper traded from October 19, 2026; cards appear on the Whisper and SPX agent panels labeled VWAP reversion.
• SPY intraday momentum ("noise area"). From published research: trade SPY only when price leaves its normal range for the time of day, with a VWAP trailing stop, flat by the close. Our own test since 2022 found the edge fading year by year, and filtering by dealer positioning did not bring it back, so it runs in the background only.
• Cash-secured puts on quality stocks. Only on companies that pass a quality screen (size, profitability, debt and earnings), with capped collateral per name. Being researched; not yet backtested.