Without the suite or Vexity: the stock-ATAS and free-data path

It is Monday 9 November 2026, 08:45 ET (20:45 ICT). A course video shows our desk’s ATAS X chart: a suite volume profile, a line marked “PD Settlement”, four σ bands and an options card with a gamma sign. Your chart has none of it: the suite is not installed yet, or you never bought Vexity.

You can still practise the core tasks: read the tape, mark reference prices and compute a volatility ruler. This lesson maps those tasks to stock ATAS X tools and manual alternatives. It does not promise the same studies, automated card or option model outputs. Keep a missing input marked unavailable instead of silently substituting another definition.

Key terms

Stock ATAS X (ATAS X gốc): the platform exactly as ATAS ships it, with only its built-in indicators and drawing tools Definition.

OrderflowSuite (bộ chỉ báo OrderflowSuite): the academy’s own set of ATAS studies (indicators drawn on your chart), installed as one file in PLAT3.01 Definition.

Settlement (giá thanh toán): the official daily price CME publishes for each futures contract. For NQ and ES it is the volume-weighted price of trades from 15:59:30 to 16:00:00 ET, which is not always the last trade Definition.

VXN (chỉ số biến động Nasdaq-100): Cboe’s index of the 30-day implied volatility of Nasdaq-100 options, quoted in annual percent Definition. It is free on Cboe’s website.

Delayed data (dữ liệu trễ): prices published after a delay, so the time stamp on the file is earlier than your clock Definition. PLAT1.02 owns when data counts as live, frozen or stale.

Term you need: σ (sigma). One day’s typical move size, from the statistics primer: σ ≈ price × (IV ÷ 100) ÷ √252, where IV is an implied volatility and √252 ≈ 15.87. OPF4.03 owns the ruler; here you only learn where the free inputs come from.

Term you need: gamma sign. A model’s reading of whether option dealers’ hedging tends to dampen moves (positive) or add to them (negative). It comes from an option chain, the list of every listed option with its open interest Model. OPF5.03 explains why the sign rests on an assumption.

Chart first: two paths for the core tasks

What to see: the order-flow half never changes. Your feed delivers the same trades to stock ATAS X as to the desk’s copy; the suite changes how they are drawn, not what they are.

How it works

The order-flow side: stock tools that do the suite’s jobs

A suite study is a convenience layer: it gathers several stock jobs into one dialog, applies our house definitions (a 70% value area grown two rows at a time, the CME settlement window) and draws them in one style Definition. Stock ATAS X covers many of these tasks with built-in tools; others need manual work or have no equivalent. Compare the definition, settings and inputs before comparing numbers. Flip each card for what differs.

The Options Regime card is separate. It reads a snapshot prepared by an external producer; stock ATAS drawing tools do not replace that producer or the card. A manually computed ruler and a delayed-chain gamma estimate cover only selected tasks, with their own definitions and time stamps Definition. Students receive the Suite, presets, workspaces and card; this fallback remains useful when those tools or their inputs are unavailable.

The option side: free inputs for σ and gamma sign

Vexity supplies two inputs the plan uses: an implied-volatility ruler and a gamma sign. Both have free sources. They are slower and need your own arithmetic.

What you give up

Speed (a prior-close VXN against a 10:00 ET reading), history (the free chain shows today only, so you cannot back-test your gamma sign) and convenience (lines typed by hand). You keep the tape, the auction and a usable ruler.

What the data says

Worked example: σ bands with no suite and no Vexity

Illustrative numbers, not a real date. NQ settled at 28,000.00 and VXN closed at 25.0.

1. σ = 28,000.00 × 0.25 ÷ √252 ≈ 440.96 points. Half of it is ≈ 220.48.
2. Add and subtract, then round each line to the 0.25 tick: +1σ 28,441.00, +0.5σ 28,220.50, −0.5σ 27,779.50, −1σ 27,559.00.
3. Draw four Horizontal Lines (F6) and type the matching signed label (+1σ, +0.5σ, −0.5σ or −1σ), followed by “VXN, prior close”, into each line’s Text field, so the source and time travel with the number.

For a long plan, the lines below settlement are where you would watch for buyers to show up in the footprint, with an invalidation written below. The mirror for a short plan uses the lines above settlement in the same way. The free path draws both sides identically; the ruler has no direction Definition.

The failure: a stamp that is older than it looks

Wednesday 4 November 2026. NQ (December contract) opened the regular session at 28,429.75 and traded 28,969.00 at 10:15:34 ET (22:15 ICT), up 539 points in 46 minutes (our lab’s NQ tick record). At 10:13 ET our lab downloaded Cboe’s free delayed option chain. Its spot field read NDX 28,646.96.

Two mistakes were on offer. One: treating that file as a live picture of a market moving that fast; Cboe labels the quotes delayed, so its stamp was older than 10:13. Two: comparing an NDX index number with an NQ futures price as if they were the same scale: NQ futures trade at a premium to the index (the basis) Definition. The free path works only if every number carries its source, scope and time, the habit from PLAT1.01.

A second, quieter failure: Daily Lines shows the prior day’s close, the last trade. Use that in place of the CME settlement and every σ band shifts by the difference.

Do it on the platform

Prop-firm note. σ sets how far a normal day can travel against a stop, so it feeds position size. Firm limits are covered in the PROP course; this lesson quotes no firm’s numbers.

Common mistakes

Common mistake: Reading “the free ruler fitted as well” as “the free ruler is proven as good”. Fifty-three sessions in one regime cannot separate the two; the honest word is “indistinguishable here”.

Common mistake: Typing Daily Lines’ close where the CME settlement belongs. The close is the last trade; the settlement is CME’s 30-second average.

Drill: build yesterday’s plan from free data

Use the last finished session and a stock ATAS X chart, with the suite turned off.

1. Read yesterday’s NQ settlement on CME’s site and VXN’s close on Cboe’s site. Write both with their dates.
2. Compute σ and the four bands, rounded to 0.25.
3. Draw them as Horizontal Lines with source labels, then add the stock layer from the how-to.
4. Compare Daily Lines’ prior close with the settlement and write the difference in ticks.

What we don’t know yet

• Whether a gamma sign computed from the free delayed chain agrees with the paid feed’s sign day by day: not yet measured. The free chain has no history, so the check has to be built forward.
• Whether the paid ruler’s better ranking survives when both are read at the same time: not yet measured.
• The free and paid rulers were compared in one autumn regime only.

Recap

• The tape is the same on every path; the suite changes the drawing layer, not the data.
• Stock tools or manual steps cover common order-flow tasks, but they do not reproduce every Suite study or the Options Regime card and its producer.
• The free σ ruler needs the CME settlement and VXN’s prior close; the free gamma sign needs a delayed chain and your own sum.
• On 53 NQ sessions the free ruler fitted closes about as well as the paid one; the paid one ranked days better, partly from timing.
• Every free number carries its source and time stamp in the plan.

Further reading

• CME Group, Understanding equity index daily and final settlement: how the NQ and ES settlement is set.
• Cboe, VXN index dashboard: the free volatility input and its methodology.
• Cboe, Delayed quotes: the free option-chain source; OCC’s public series search is the clearinghouse cross-check for open interest.
• Our lab: a free and a paid volatility ruler scored on the same 53 NQ sessions (autumn 2026) could not be told apart on calibration.
• Our lab: Cboe’s free chain matched the clearinghouse’s QQQ open interest on all 181 strikes of one expiry (4 Nov 2026), but offers no history.

Prerequisites: M0.07 and PLAT1.01. Next: PLAT2.01 installs ATAS X and connects your feed, the base that both paths in this lesson share.

Educational content only. Not financial advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss.