Co-pilot Signal States

The Co-pilot on the Commander tab is a sniper, not a strobe light. It surfaces a play only when its checks agree — and most of the time it deliberately says nothing. This page decodes each state it can show, and why silence is a feature, not a bug.

The Co-pilot moves through a small set of states: SCANNING, SETUP FORMING, SIGNAL LIVE, MANAGING, COOLDOWN, and STAND DOWN.
Entry and targets appear only while a signal is live. The rest of the time you get a plain "watching, no play yet" line — that is the design, not a broken screen.
A live play shows a direction bias — CALLS (▲) or PUTS (▼) — with an entry and targets.
The 0–100 number is a confluence score, not a win probability.
A named setup still needs its listed chart trigger before a signal can go live.
If the live flow feed drops, the Co-pilot withholds plays rather than guessing — silence is a signal.
Educational context only. None of this is financial advice.

The Co-pilot panel in its SCANNING state with a red PLAY BLOCKED banner across the top. Below it, the ENGINE, FLOW, and STRUCT pillar rows show grey dots, the reasoning bullets note a medium-confidence PUTS lean, and the footer reads signals today 0/8 above a LEDGER 10D strip. — Nothing to do right now: the Co-pilot is SCANNING, a red PLAY BLOCKED banner has vetoed the only lean it found, and the day's counter still reads 0 signals. The silence is the signal — this quiet, no-play view is the one you will see most.

Read the state before you read anything else on the card. It tells you whether the Co-pilot is idle, warming up, firing, or standing aside — and that frames everything below it.

The state machine

The Co-pilot advances through states as conditions line up and then resolve. Each state has its own glyph and a short sub-line explaining what it is waiting on or watching.

State	What it means	What to do
◦ SCANNING	The default resting state. The Co-pilot is watching, and nothing qualifies yet. The sub-line reads "watching for pillar agreement".	Nothing. This is the honest baseline — most of a session lives here.
▲ SETUP FORMING	A named play has qualified: PIN REVERSION, BREAKOUT CONTINUATION, or FAILED LEVEL REVERSAL. The trigger-watch line names the chart event still required.	Get ready, not in. A setup can dissolve before it ever becomes a signal.
● SIGNAL LIVE	The checks agree. The card shows a direction (CALLS ▲ or PUTS ▼) with the entry and targets it fired on — direction and plan always come from the same read, frozen at fire time.	This is the one moment the Co-pilot is actively pointing at a play. Confirm it against your own read.
◈ MANAGING	A play is already open on one side. The sub-line reads "managing {direction} — no re-fire this side" — it will not stack a second signal in the same direction.	Manage the open idea. Do not expect a fresh entry on this side while it is live.
◷ COOLDOWN	A same-side lockout after a play resolves, with a "resets in m:ss" countdown. This prevents an instant re-fire in the same direction.	Wait for the countdown. The Co-pilot is intentionally sitting on its hands.
⛔ STAND DOWN	No clean setup — the Co-pilot is standing aside on purpose. The sub-line states the reason (default: "no clean setup").	Stand aside with it. A forced trade here is exactly what this state exists to prevent.

Tip The states you will see most are SCANNING and STAND DOWN. That is by design. A console that fired all day would be noise; one that fires rarely is doing its job.

The PLAY BLOCKED banner

Sometimes a red ⛔ PLAY BLOCKED banner sits above the reasoning. It is a hard veto: even when the Co-pilot has a lean, a safety check has ruled the play out, so no entry appears while the block stands. The banner names the reason in plain words — for example, pin risk holding price against a magnet. It clears on its own once that condition passes.

Note A PLAY BLOCKED banner can appear even while the state still reads SCANNING — the two are independent. The state tells you where the Co-pilot is in its cycle; the banner is a veto layered on top. When both point at "no play," take the hint.

Confluence, setup, trigger: all three are required

The 0–100 score measures how much the engine's evidence agrees. It is deliberately labeled confluence, not probability: 80/100 does not mean an 80% chance of winning.

A v8 signal needs more than a directional lean. At least two pillars must agree, confluence must clear 60, one of the three named setup families must qualify, the option must pass delta/spread/budget checks, and a listed chart event—such as two-close VWAP confirmation, level acceptance, or a CVD-checked impulse—must actually occur. Until then the play remains SETUP FORMING.

Note A high confluence score can still show no trade. That means the setup, execution quality, or chart trigger has not passed; the Setup Status card names the missing piece.

Freshness chips on the entry

When a play is live, the entry carries a small freshness chip so you know how current the number is:

live — the entry was stamped from a live quote at the moment you loaded the card.
⚠ stale 12s — a live quote was unavailable, so the entry is off a snapshot, with its age in seconds. Confirm it against the tape before you act on it.

The wider Commander tab also shows freshness on its data badges — a DATA DELAYED or CLOSED chip when the feed is behind or the market is shut. See Data & Freshness for how the whole app timestamps itself.

When the flow feed goes dark

The Co-pilot reads several inputs. One of them is a live order-flow lens. When that feed is unavailable, the console does not paper over the gap — it withholds the play and tells you why.

The order-flow panel shows NO FLOW DATA — live order flow unavailable (source down or not yet warmed).
The Co-pilot may report Play withheld — flow lens dark and stay read-only until full data returns.
The tab may drop into a reduced mode — a GEX-ONLY badge marks it: the live flow feed is offline, so you are seeing dealer-gamma levels only, without the flow lens.

Warning A read built on partial data does not earn an entry. When the flow lens is dark, the Co-pilot deliberately shows nothing actionable rather than guessing off half its inputs. Silence here is the correct output — treat it as such, not as a level you missed.

Budget chips on the contract

When a play surfaces a contract, a small budget chip flags its per-contract premium as a built-in guardrail: $X/ct ✓ budget, $X/ct · over $500, or $X/ct ⚠ OVER CAP.

v8 also requires an executable ask, delta between 0.25 and 0.60, and a spread no wider than 18%. The ledger grades entry at ask and exit at bid.

Common questions

The Co-pilot has said SCANNING for an hour. Is it broken?: Almost certainly not. SCANNING is the resting state — it means nothing qualifies right now. The Co-pilot is built to stay quiet until its checks agree, so long stretches of silence are normal and expected.
Why do I see a bias but no entry price?: A lean is not a signal. Confluence may be below 60, no named setup may qualify, the contract may fail execution checks, or the required chart trigger may still be pending. Setup Status shows which condition is missing.
What does Play withheld — flow lens dark mean?: The live flow feed is offline, so the Co-pilot is running on partial inputs. It refuses to issue an actionable play on incomplete data and stays read-only until the full feed returns.
Should I take a SIGNAL LIVE automatically?: No. Every state on this card is educational context for your own read, not financial advice. A live signal is one input among many — confirm it against price, the levels, and your own plan before doing anything.

StrikeChart: Levels on PriceSee the same GEX levels plotted directly on the candles you trade against. The Execution Framework: Entries, Exits, and Risk Using GEX LevelsHow to turn levels and signals into a repeatable entry-and-exit process. Gamma Regimes, Node Types, and the Setups That Actually WorkThe regime context that shapes when a signal is worth acting on.