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Platform Studies (Sierra, NinjaTrader)

Draw the dealer-gamma levels and the gamma-by-strike profile inside the charting platform you already trade on. Install, API keys, and what each line means.

Get Sharpnel Pricing

What this is

The same dealer-gamma levels the terminal draws, rendered inside the charting platform you already trade on — call and put walls, the gamma flip, max pain, the expected-move band, the top gamma strikes, plus the full gamma-by-strike profile.

It is included with a paid plan. There is no separate purchase, and one key works across every platform.

How levels land on your chart

The API serves levels in index points (SPX or NDX) together with a reference price derived from the option chain. The study then computes a basis from your own chart's last price and draws every level shifted by it.

Two consequences worth understanding:

Levels line up with the price on your chart whatever data feed or contract you run — your feed supplies the basis, not mine.
Nothing derived from my futures feed ever leaves my server. That is what keeps the data licensing clean, and it is why the design works this way rather than shipping you futures-coordinate levels.

iWhich instruments

The additive basis only holds for instruments that track their index roughly one-for-one — the E-mini and Micro futures. ES and MES map to SPX; NQ and MNQ map to NDX. On anything else the study draws nothing and says so, rather than shifting SPX levels onto an unrelated chart where they would look entirely plausible and mean nothing.

Getting your API key

Go to Settings → API Keys.
Give it a label (optional but useful once you have a few) and press NEW KEY.
Copy it immediately. Keys are stored hashed, so that is the only time it can be shown. Lost one? Revoke it and mint another.

Five active keys per account. The key carries your subscription, so it stops working the moment the subscription lapses — no action needed from either of us.

!Treat it like a password

Anyone holding your key is drawing levels on your plan. Worth knowing: exported chart templates and saved workspaces can contain it, so don't share one with the key filled in. If it gets out, revoke it in Settings and mint a new one — it takes ten seconds.

Install — Sierra Chart

Download SharpnelGammaLevels_64.dll from Settings → Platform Studies.
Save it into your Sierra Chart Data folder — usually C:\SierraChart\Data.
In Sierra: Analysis → Studies → Add Custom Study → Sharpnel Gamma Levels → Add.
Open Settings and Inputs → Text Input and paste your API key.

Levels, the profile and a status line appear within a few seconds.

!Updating the file later

Sierra holds the DLL open while it is running. Close Sierra Chart before saving a new build over the old one, or the copy will fail with a file-in-use error.

If you want to confirm the file is the one I published, compare the checksum shown next to the download:

PowerShell

Get-FileHash .\SharpnelGammaLevels_64.dll -Algorithm SHA256

Install — NinjaTrader 8

Download SharpnelGammaLevels.cs from Settings → Platform Studies.
Save it into Documents\NinjaTrader 8\bin\Custom\Indicators\.
In NinjaTrader: New → NinjaScript Editor, then press F5 to compile.
Right-click a chart → Indicators… → Sharpnel Gamma Levels → Add.
Paste your API key into the API Key field, then OK.

iYou get source, not a binary

NinjaTrader compiles NinjaScript itself, on your machine — so what you download is the code, and you can read every line before you run it.

Same key, same levels, same behaviour as the Sierra build.

Install — Quantower

Download SharpnelGammaLevels.dll from Settings → Platform Studies.
Save it into your Quantower folder under Settings\Scripts\Indicators\SharpnelGammaLevels\ — create that folder if it isn't there.
Fully close Quantower, including the Starter process, then reopen it.
On an ES/MES/NQ/MNQ chart: Indicators → Sharpnel → Sharpnel Gamma Levels → Add.
Paste your API key into the API Key field.

!A restart is required

Quantower only scans for new indicators at startup. Reloading the chart is not enough — if it doesn't appear in the Indicators list, it's almost always because the platform didn't fully exit.

MotiveWave and ATAS follow.

Reading the chart

Call / Put Wall	The strikes carrying the largest call and put gamma — where dealer hedging tends to slow price down.
Gamma Flip	Where net dealer gamma crosses zero. Above it hedging typically dampens moves; below it, it tends to amplify them.
Max Pain	The strike where the most option value expires worthless.
EM High / EM Low	The expected-move band implied by the at-the-money straddle.
GEX 1–5	The five strikes carrying the most gamma, marked in the profile gutter too.
High Gamma / Vanna / Charm	Second-order concentrations. Off by default — turn them on once the main lines make sense.
Profile bars	Gamma by strike. Open-interest gamma is the darker bar; volume gamma is the brighter bar nested inside it. Blue is positive gamma, red is negative.
Ghost dots	Where that strike's gamma sat 1, 5, 10, 15 and 30 minutes ago. Dots left of the bar tip mean gamma is building there; dots to the right mean it is draining.

iThe profile scales to what you can see

Bar lengths are relative to the largest gamma currently in view, not across the whole strike ladder — otherwise one far-off strike would squash everything on screen into stubs. Zooming rescales it. The units are relative by design; the shape is the signal, not the absolute width.

What it does when data is missing

This matters more than any feature, so it is worth being explicit. The study will not show you a line it cannot stand behind.

Status line	Always shows the real age of the data — the server's own timestamp plus locally elapsed time, so a frozen clock cannot make old levels look fresh.
Stale data	Past 15 minutes the status line reads * STALE * in bold. The levels stay drawn, clearly labelled as old.
Auth failure	Levels are CLEARED and the status says why. Same for a lapsed subscription, an unreachable server, or a payload it cannot parse.
Wrong instrument	If the chart is nowhere near the chain being drawn, levels are cleared rather than shifted onto it.
Expected-move band	Absent whenever there is no qualifying at-the-money straddle quote that cycle. Index chains often carry none. It reappears when the data supports it — that is honest absence, not a bug.
Ghost dots	A lookback with no honestly matched cycle is omitted. Right after a restart you will see fewer dots, filling in as history accumulates. Never back-filled with zeros.

Troubleshooting

NO API KEY	The key field is empty. Paste one from Settings → API Keys.
AUTH FAILED	The key is wrong, or was revoked. Mint a new one.
SUBSCRIPTION INACTIVE	The plan behind the key lapsed. Levels resume as soon as it is active again.
CHART DOES NOT MATCH	The chart is not the index being drawn. Use an ES/MES or NQ/MNQ chart, or set the Underlying input manually.
RATE LIMITED	120 requests a minute per key. Raise the refresh interval, or use fewer charts on one key.
Levels but no profile	The profile needs the strikes array; if levels draw and bars do not, tell me — that is a real bug, not a data outage.
Nothing at all	Check the status line first. It always says which of these it is.

Anything the status line does not explain, open a ticket — I answer them myself.

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Futures/options trading involves substantial risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Content is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Not suitable for all investors.