0-DTE Options: Edge Or Just A Volatility Casino?

Zero DTE options look like pure adrenaline. Same day expiry, tiny premiums, huge percentage moves if you catch the direction. That is exactly why most traders treat them like a lottery ticket and get handled by people who actually understand how the game is wired.

Same day contracts live at the intersection of gamma, dealer hedging, and intraday liquidity. The players who really benefit are desks and experienced intraday traders who know how positions force dealers to chase price. When size piles into calls or puts at specific strikes, dealers hedge in the underlying, and that flow can drag price toward those levels. You get intraday “magnets” where the market keeps gravitating toward a strike because that is where the options exposure is heaviest.

The flip side is the fake move. Zero DTE order flow can push price through obvious levels, trigger stops, and then reverse hard once the hedging pressure clears. Retail sees a breakout, piles in late, and walks straight into a snap back. To most traders, it looks like manipulation. In reality, they are just reading the surface and ignoring how short dated options flow is jerking the underlying around.

If you want any edge here, you cannot treat zero DTE like a cheap way to guess direction. You need to know where the big same day open interest sits, which strikes are loaded, and how intraday order flow reacts as price approaches those levels. For most people, zero DTE is a volatility casino. For the few who actually map the flow and respect the mechanics, it is just another tool in the kit.