0DTE, 1DTE, or ALL: Choosing the Right Horizon

Published by Cristian Ibáñez

0DTE, 1DTE, and ALL completely change what you see across the NT8 suite. The same Gamma Flip, the same Call Wall, the same strike profile can show up in a different spot depending on which expiration horizon you choose. They aren't three different indicators. They're three different lenses on the same data. Picking the right one completely changes what you see across any of the three components of the GammaContext suite for NinjaTrader 8.

This guide closes out the tour of the NT8 suite by explaining what each horizon means and when each one fits.

What Each Horizon Means

0DTE aggregates only the gamma from options expiring today. According to Investopedia, 0DTE (zero days to expiration) options are contracts that expire and become void the same trading day. That makes that expiration the most sensitive to what happens in today's session. It's the most reactive horizon to intraday moves. Daily-expiration options accumulate most of their gamma in the final hours before the close. According to CME Group (2026), Gamma measures how fast an option's Delta changes against a move in the underlying. That speed intensifies the closer expiration gets.

1DTE aggregates gamma expiring the following day. It becomes more relevant after mid-afternoon, once most of the day's 0DTE gamma has resolved and the market starts looking toward the next session. According to Cboe (2023), very short-dated options volume has grown into a significant share of total daily activity. That means the next day's expiration also carries a meaningful slice of active positioning.

ALL aggregates every active gamma expiration, with no filter. It's the broadest read on the market's overall regime. It's less sensitive to the noise of any single expiration day.

Cover image: visual comparison of GEX levels across the 0DTE, 1DTE, and ALL horizons on the same chart Figure 1. The same asset, three different horizons: 0DTE, 1DTE, and ALL can place levels in different spots.

An Example of the Same Level Shifting Between Horizons

Imagine you check the Call Wall at 9:45 in the morning. On 0DTE, the Call Wall marks 21,410. On ALL, that same level marks 21,450. The forty-point difference isn't an error: they're two different questions with two different answers.

0DTE tells you where the strongest resistance is likely to form today, using the gamma expiring this same afternoon. ALL tells you where the strongest resistance sits considering every active gamma, regardless of when it expires. If price approaches 21,410 during the morning, the reaction likely comes from today's gamma. If price keeps rising toward 21,450 in the afternoon, that's where ALL's broader read comes into play.

An Example of the Shift Toward 1DTE

At 3:30 in the afternoon, most of the day's 0DTE gamma has already resolved. The Call Wall on 0DTE, which marked 21,410 mid-morning, now looks less defined: the bar is smaller, since those options have little time left. At that same moment, the Call Wall on 1DTE marks 21,470, with a much more solid bar.

That horizon shift isn't a coincidence. It's exactly the transition the previous section describes: the market starts looking toward the next session, and the gamma that will matter early tomorrow is already readable this afternoon, once you switch the selector to 1DTE.

Why the Same Level Shifts Depending on the Horizon

A Call Wall calculated using only today's expirations can sit at a different strike than the Call Wall calculated with every active gamma expiration. Position concentration isn't the same across every expiration date. Neither one is "wrong": they answer different questions. 0DTE answers what's likely to happen today. ALL answers what regime the market is in, beyond today.

Table: When to Use Each Horizon

Horizon	Best time to use it	What it answers
0DTE	Throughout the session, especially in the morning	What's likely to happen with price today?
1DTE	After mid-afternoon, or when prepping for the next session	What's likely to happen early tomorrow?
ALL	At the start of the day, or to confirm the overall regime	What regime is the market in, beyond today?

Every configuration detail per component is in the NT8 suite technical documentation.

How the Horizon Applies to Each Suite Component

In GCIGexLevels, the horizon changes where the Flip, Call Wall, Put Wall, Long Wall, Short Fuel, Res Call, and Sop Put lines and zones draw. In GCIStrikeProfile, the horizon changes which strikes stand out in the profile. It directly affects the Convexity metric, available only on 0DTE and 1DTE. In the GammaContext Gex Panel, the active horizon affects all three cards (Regime, Bias, Space) at once, since all three read from the same aggregate calculation.

Switching the selector on any one of the three components doesn't change the horizon on the other two. Each keeps its own selection. You could, for example, view the Flip on ALL while checking the strike profile on 0DTE.

Running Two Charts on Different Horizons at the Same Time

Because each component keeps its own horizon selection, nothing stops you from opening two chart templates on the same instrument, one set to 0DTE and the other set to ALL, and watching both side by side through the session. One template shows what's likely to happen with price today. The other shows the broader regime underneath it. You don't have to keep switching a single selector back and forth to get both reads.

This setup is particularly useful around mid-afternoon, when the transition toward 1DTE described earlier starts happening. A third template on 1DTE, added at that point, lets you watch the day's gamma fade on one screen while the next session's gamma builds on another, without losing track of either one. Traders who hold positions overnight tend to find this three-template setup more useful than switching a single chart's horizon repeatedly, since it keeps yesterday's, today's, and tomorrow's read all visible at once.

How Zone Width Changes With the Horizon

The Call Wall and Put Wall zones keep the same configured tick width no matter which horizon is active. What changes is where that band sits on price, because the strike with the heaviest concentration isn't the same on 0DTE as it is on ALL. A ten-tick band around 21,410 on 0DTE becomes a ten-tick band around 21,450 on ALL: the width is identical, the position isn't.

That matters because a zone width you tuned with 0DTE moves in mind can feel different on ALL, simply because ALL tends to place the level at a strike with a different price dynamic around it. If zones start feeling too narrow or too wide when you switch horizons, it's worth reviewing the configured width for each one separately, even though the parameter itself is the same field in the indicator's properties.

How to Choose Your Horizon Based on How You Trade

If you're looking for one or two high-quality trades a day, start the day on ALL to confirm the overall regime. Switch to 0DTE as execution gets closer.
If you specifically trade the daily expiration, 0DTE is your primary read throughout the session.
If you're prepping for the next day's session, check 1DTE after mid-afternoon.
If something doesn't line up between horizons, that's not an error. They're legitimately different reads. Confirm which one actually answers the question you're asking at that moment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a "correct" default horizon? There isn't a universal one. It depends on whether you want the broadest read (ALL) or the most sensitive to today (0DTE). Many traders combine both.

Why is Convexity only available on 0DTE and 1DTE? Because GCIStrikeProfile's convexity calculation is built specifically on those two horizons. On ALL, the profile shows GEX instead.

Does the horizon affect all three suite components at the same time? Each component keeps its own horizon selection, independent of the other two.

Can I switch horizons mid-session without losing the rest of my settings? Yes. Switching the horizon only updates which data is shown. The rest of the indicator's parameters stay the same.

Which horizon is worth checking first when the session opens? ALL is usually the most useful starting point, since it confirms the overall regime before the day's 0DTE gamma starts building up.

What time is it worth switching from 0DTE to 1DTE? There's no exact time, but mid-afternoon tends to be the reference point. That's when most of today's expiring gamma has resolved and the market starts looking toward the next session.

Do I need to reconfigure zone width every time I switch horizons? Not necessarily, but it can be worth tuning it once per horizon and leaving it there, since each one tends to place levels in a different price context.

Is running three chart templates at once, one per horizon, overkill? For a trader who only trades one setup a day, it usually is. For someone tracking a position across sessions, seeing 0DTE, 1DTE, and ALL side by side removes the need to keep switching a single selector and losing track of what changed.

Next Step

You've now seen the seven components and concepts that make up the GammaContext suite for NinjaTrader 8: the full suite, the live Flip, the Call Wall and Put Wall as zones, the strike profile, GCIStrikeProfile's three metrics, the panel's three cards, Max Change, and now the right horizon for each of them. That's the full map to start trading with gamma exposure context without leaving your chart.

Go back to the main guide: Gamma Exposure on NinjaTrader 8: The GammaContext Suite.