Every dotted term on the free EdgeLog prep sheets explains itself with a tap. This page is the same glossary in one place: what each term means, and why it matters at the open. Written for ES and NQ futures traders, no prior tape-reading vocabulary assumed. See them in context in Morning Edge, the free pre-market prep tool, or in ES Positioning / NQ Positioning, the live order-flow reports.
The CME futures contract tracking the S&P 500 index, in $50-per-point increments. The instrument Morning Edge and ES Positioning are built around.
Why it matters: One ES point is $50 per contract. Every level on this site is quoted in index points, not dollars.
The CME futures contract tracking the Nasdaq-100 index, in $20-per-point increments.
Why it matters: NQ moves in bigger point swings than ES for similar dollar risk - its own levels and setups, not a smaller version of the ES read.
The main US day session, 9:30 AM to 4 PM ET. Everything outside it is the overnight (Globex) session.
Why it matters: The prep sheet preps the RTH open, the highest-volume decision point of the day.
The highest price traded in the overnight (Globex) session, 6 PM to 9:30 AM ET.
Why it matters: Overnight extremes trap traders: setups #1 and #2 on the prep sheet fire at ONL and ONH.
The lowest price of the overnight (Globex) session.
Why it matters: Break it, fail, reclaim it, and the sellers who chased are trapped: that is the ONL Failed Breakdown, the prep sheet's core long.
Yesterday's highest price during regular hours, 9:30 AM to 4 PM ET.
Why it matters: The open vs PDH and PDL defines gap days: an open above PDH is a Gap Up by definition.
Yesterday's lowest price during regular hours.
Why it matters: An open below PDL is a Gap Down, and PDL becomes the decision level: holds extend the move, fails fill the gap.
Yesterday's official closing price for the session.
Why it matters: Gap days tend to pull toward it: that is the gap-fill target.
The day's official closing price for the contract.
Why it matters: The gravity line of the overnight: price auctions around it all evening, and gap math measures from it.
The range built in the first hour of the day session, 9:30 to 10:30 ET.
Why it matters: Balance-day playbooks wait for this range to break before picking a side.
The top of the first hour's range. It only exists after 10:30 ET, so fill it in then.
Why it matters: Setup #6 and the continuation plays key off IBH and IBL breaks.
The bottom of the first hour's range, known after 10:30 ET.
Why it matters: A break below IBL that fails and reclaims is a long trigger on stretched days.
The volume-weighted average price: a running average of the session, weighted by where volume actually traded, anchored to the 6 PM ET reopen.
Why it matters: The day's center of gravity. Most setups here target a return to it, and the open's distance from it sets your Step 2 zone.
Bands drawn 1 and 2 standard deviations around VWAP: normal vs stretched distance from the average.
Why it matters: An open 2 bands out is stretched: reversion setups strengthen, chasing gets expensive.
The single price where the most volume traded: the session's consensus price.
Why it matters: A magnet and a common target, alongside VWAP.
The single price where the most volume traded in a session: the market's consensus price.
Why it matters: A magnet and a common target. On the prep sheets, RTH POC means the day session's POC carried into the night.
The top of the value area, the zone holding roughly 70% of the session's volume.
Why it matters: Trading above VAH means the market is repricing higher; rejection there rotates back toward POC.
The bottom of the value area, the zone holding roughly 70% of a session's volume.
Why it matters: Setups #7 and #8 trade failed breakdowns at the daily and weekly VAL.
The zone holding roughly 70% of a session's volume, bounded by VAH above and VAL below, with POC at its center.
Why it matters: Inside it the market is in balance; outside it, price is repricing and the playbook changes.
Net aggressor volume: buy volume minus sell volume for the window shown.
Why it matters: Positive means buyers paid more aggressively overall; negative means sellers did. Shown throughout the positioning reports.
A dollar estimate of how hard option dealers must hedge when the market moves 1%. High GEX pins the tape; low GEX lets moves travel.
Why it matters: It is the day's speed limit: the Green / Yellow / Red pill tunes targets and how long you let runners run.
The price where dealer hedging switches sides: above it their flows calm the tape, below it they chase and accelerate it.
Why it matters: Above the flip, dips get bought and fading works. Below it, moves extend, stops need room, momentum leads.
The option strikes carrying the heaviest dealer hedging above (call wall) and below (put wall) the market.
Why it matters: They act like shelves: price often stalls on the first touch, especially on pinned, high-GEX days.
The options-implied range for the session: how far the market is priced to travel, drawn as rails above and below settle.
Why it matters: The Globex sheets' fuel gauge reads the night's range against the rails: the closer the tank is to empty, the less room the next move has.
The strike price where the total value of expiring options is lowest - in theory, where the most option buyers lose the most money.
Why it matters: A gravitational level some traders watch into expiration, though it pulls weaker than the flip or the walls.
GEX regime slang for a market with heavy dealer options hedging (Red / high GEX): the tape gets pinned, and moves compress around the big strikes.
Why it matters: What a fat book does depends on which side of the flip price is on: above it, dealers buy dips and the grind is supported; below it, dealers chase and it's the most explosive regime.
GEX regime slang for a market with light dealer options hedging (Green / low GEX): the tape is free to travel, not held back by dealer flows.
Why it matters: Scale at levels and trail runners - a thin book is where trends actually extend instead of stalling at a wall.
Watch For and Positioning Context on ES/NQ Positioning tag each zone with any technical levels it overlaps. GEX- and WGEX- prefixed tags point back to the dealer map terms above (Flip, Call wall / Put wall, Max Pain) - GEX- is today's daily gamma file, WGEX- is this week's. PDH/PDL are defined above under session structure. The two below are the ones not covered elsewhere.
The value area high, value area low, and point of control for the current week's trading so far.
Why it matters: A weekly-timeframe reference level, more persistent than a single session's value area - worth more weight when it lines up with a nearby zone.
Today's regular-hours value area high, value area low, and point of control, shown as reference levels on the positioning reports.
Why it matters: Not the same window as the report's own POC/VA figures at the top of the page, which blend prior RTH with the overnight session - this is today's RTH alone.
Which side built up positions overnight: did the Globex session net buy or net sell into the morning?
Why it matters: Trapped overnight traders are fuel. Sellers trapped under a reclaiming open power the strongest bounce longs.
A read of how the first 15 minutes behave: Open Drive, Open Test Drive, Open Auction, Open Auction in Range, or a Gap day.
Why it matters: Each type has its own playbook: what to trade, what to skip, how big. The prep sheet's classifier lands on it in two taps.
Price opens and runs one way without returning to the open price. The strongest, most directional open.
Why it matters: Trade with the drive, never fade it: 65% of ES drives follow through (80% on NQ).
Price probes a key level first, gets sharply rejected with a wick and a volume spike, then drives the other way.
Why it matters: The second VWAP cross is the entry, never the first: the probe exists to trap the early crowd.
Two-sided rotation around the open price: both sides probing, no early winner.
Why it matters: Failed-break setups still fire on their own trigger here; continuation trades wait for the first hour's range to break.
A quiet, tight open inside yesterday's range on light volume: the market is waiting for information.
Why it matters: Worst stats of the five. Half size or skip, and let the first hour finish before entering.
A one-way push in the final minutes of the day session that closes at or near its extreme: a move the market never got to two-side.
Why it matters: Where the night trades relative to it decides its fate: holding above the spike base is acceptance, losing the base unwinds the spike.
The sheet's summed read of inventory, gamma, VWAP position, walls, and open type: LONG, SHORT, or TWO-SIDED, with 1-3 stars of conviction.
Why it matters: It governs size: with-bias setups run full, counter-bias setups run half.
Price breaks under a key level, cannot hold below it, and reclaims it. Everyone who sold the break is now trapped.
Why it matters: The prep sheet's core long family: the trapped sellers' stops are the fuel.
The mirror at the highs: price pokes above a key level, fails, and drops back through, trapping the buyers who chased.
Why it matters: Setup #2 shorts the failed break of ONH.
Fewer than 25 recorded triggers in the 531-session study.
Why it matters: Read it as direction, not a base rate: the prep sheet refuses to print a percentage under n=25.
How many times this exact setup triggered across the 531-session study.
Why it matters: Bigger n, steadier number. Under 25 prints as thin instead of a percentage.
The backtest's internal code for the Failed Breakdown family.
Why it matters: Codes keep every number traceable to a row in the study.
The backtest's internal code for Gap-Up Reversion.
Why it matters: Same convention: every rate maps to a study row.
These rates come from replaying fixed rules over 531 historical sessions, not from live trading.
Why it matters: Hypothetical results have limits: modeled fills, no slippage surprises, no account risk. No promise your results will match. Full method on the Morning Edge sheet, under How the edge is measured.
The nearest zones to price where real order flow committed to a side - not support/resistance drawn by eye.
Why it matters: These are the levels most likely to matter next: closest to price, backed by measured volume and book imbalance.
The wider table of every qualifying zone around price, nearest first - Watch For's shortlist plus the rest of the picture.
Why it matters: Use it to see the landscape beyond the immediate levels, and whether the nearby read fits the bigger structure.
Price has moved to the far side of a zone where one side committed hard - the side that committed is now underwater relative to that level.
Why it matters: Which thesis depends on who's trapped: trapped sellers set up a short squeeze (bullish); trapped buyers set up a long capitulation (bearish).
Sellers are trapped below price and underwater. The longer price holds above their zone, the more pressure builds on them to cover - and that forced buying adds fuel to a move higher.
Why it matters: This is the only setup "squeeze" correctly describes: shorts being forced to buy back.
Buyers are trapped above price and underwater. The longer price holds below their zone, the more pressure builds on them to give up and sell - and that forced selling adds fuel to a move lower.
Why it matters: The mirror case to a short squeeze, but the opposite direction - trapped longs being forced to sell, not shorts covering.
Price is still on the same side as whichever side committed at this zone - they're winning so far.
Why it matters: Reads as support (buyers in favor below price) or resistance (sellers in favor above price).
Price is trading inside this zone right now, within about 2 points of its center.
Why it matters: Too close to call trapped or in favor yet - watch how it resolves.
Aggressive sellers hit into a resting bid that didn't budge and kept refilling - the buy side absorbed the selling.
Why it matters: Reads as support: buyers were committed and defended the level.
One side paid up (or down) aggressively and the resting book was already leaning their way - they pushed with the book, not against it.
Why it matters: The strongest directional read: paid aggression and book agreement together.
Aggressive buyers lifted into a resting offer that didn't budge and kept refilling - the sell side absorbed the buying.
Why it matters: Reads as resistance: sellers were committed and defended the level.
Aggressor flow crossed the spread here, but the resting book was roughly even on both sides - no one side clearly committed.
Why it matters: Chop, not a level: these zones are filtered out of Watch For and Positioning Context on purpose.
The split between aggressor buy volume and aggressor sell volume that traded through this zone.
Why it matters: A lopsided split is what actually defines a committed side - near 50/50 means neither side really won the zone.
A zone that showed up as a committed level across more than one of the last few sessions, shown as "X of Y sessions."
Why it matters: A level seen 3+ times in 5 sessions is structural; a level seen once is thin evidence.
A running tally across the whole lookback window of how much aggressor volume from each side (shorts vs. longs) is now underwater relative to the current price.
Why it matters: The aggregate, big-picture read - who's carrying more pain overall, not just at one nearby zone.
Underwater size multiplied by how many points offside it is - a proxy for actual pain, not just raw contract count.
Why it matters: This is what actually sets the Pain Ledger's verdict, not the raw volume split shown next to it - the two can point different ways.
The risk read from an earlier pull - an earlier phase or an earlier day - kept visible instead of getting silently replaced by the newest run.
Why it matters: Useful for tracing whether a level you were watching earlier is still relevant, without digging through an old report.
A single sentence naming the specific level that would flip the current read - a short squeeze or long capitulation level for a trapped side, or a structural level whose break would change who's in control.
Why it matters: Read it as "here's the line in the sand," not a prediction of what happens next.
Market-by-order depth data - the full order book, not just trade prints - used to measure resting size at each price.
Why it matters: This is what lets the report tell absorption (resting size held) apart from initiative (book agreed with the aggressor), instead of guessing from price action alone.
EdgeLog is an educational tool, not financial advice, and EdgeLog is not a registered investment or trading advisor. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Any rates referenced here are hypothetical backtest measurements, not live trading results, and past performance does not guarantee future results.