Brandon Chapman, Author at TheoTrade

Was That the Bottom or a Fakeout?

June 8, 2026

Hey trader, The S&P 500 is green today, one session after Friday sent the VIX from 15.44 up to 21.5. It would be easy to look at that and call the bottom, the dip buyers stepping back in. But not everything is what it seems. The buying is not what lifted us today. The VIX got sold, and that is a very different engine. I run the volatility curve and the gamma structure every morning before the bell. Both are telling me this bounce is borrowed. Friday’s move actually signaled something completely different from what you probably think. And there is one level that decides whether the next leg down arrives this week. What VIX Selling Actually Means The VIX closed Thursday at 15.44. By Friday’s close it had jumped to 21.5. Today it sits near 18. That drop in fear is what is lifting the index, not fresh buying.

Friday’s Drop Had A Tell

June 6, 2026

Hey trader, The S&P 500 dropped about 1.6% on Friday, and the financial media is still hunting for the headline that did it. It would be easy to pin the move on one news story. The selloff was already on the clock before any headline crossed. The warning was sitting in the volatility curve a day earlier. The three-month to one-month VIX ratio had pushed up to 1.25, the most stress the vol market had priced since late December. That is the read I run every session. It flashed bearish well ahead of the candle. Stick with me and you will see what the curve was saying, why the drop finally arrived, and where the next test sits. What The Curve Was Telling Us The three-month to one-month VIX ratio is the forward premium on volatility. It compares the stress priced 90 days out against the stress priced over the

The Rule That Freed Hood

June 4, 2026

Hey trader, The Pattern Day Trading rule that kept smaller accounts out of active day trading is gone as of today. You can already see the result in the tape. It would be easy to file that under regulatory housekeeping and scroll past it. The follow-through is sitting in the option chain instead. As traders buy calls, dealers get shorter, and a name like Robinhood starts to squeeze on its own. I watched it build on the Console this morning, and I want to walk you through it. Stick with me and you will see what the rule change does to the way price moves now, why Hood is the live example, and a defined-risk way to play the squeeze. The Rule That Just Changed The Tape The government declared the pattern day trader rule dead today. Brokers get to wind it down on their own timing. A number of

Why Marvell Hit An Invisible Ceiling

June 3, 2026

Hey trader, Marvell gapped open at 320 and then went quiet. The run that everyone watched explode stalled the moment it got there. It would be easy to say the buyers simply ran out of steam. The real reason was sitting in the option chain, locked in before the bell. There was no open interest above 320. The calls that powered the squeeze had nothing left to climb toward, so 320 became a ceiling instead of a launch pad. I caught it on the Console, and I want to show you how the same structure that lifted Marvell also capped it. Stick with me and you will see why the gap died right where it did, what today’s balanced tape is telling me, and how to spot a ceiling like this before you chase the next one. The Run That Built The Ladder Marvell did not climb in a straight

Marvell’s 28% Wasn’t Random

June 2, 2026

Hey trader, Marvell ran 28% in a day, and the chart gave no warning before it happened. It would be easy to look at that and say the news did it. The news only lit the match. The real fuel was sitting in the option chain a day earlier. Traders were loading calls at 225, 230, and 260, and that quietly forced the dealers short. That is the part you almost never catch in time. I caught it on the Console, and I want to walk you through how. Stick with me and you will see how this squeeze was readable before the gap, where I think Marvell goes from here, and a cheap, defined-risk way to play it. The Catalyst Was Loud, The Setup Was Quiet Marvell opened near 260 and traded around 284, pushing close to 300. That is a 28% move in a day. The trigger was

Bears Are Loading Intel

June 1, 2026

Hey trader, Institutions spent the morning buying downside in Intel as the stock drifted off its highs. The mechanism is open-interest accumulation. The buyers are stacking puts faster than the existing book can absorb. The Block Hunter Console flagged the prints by size, showed them filling at the ask, and confirmed volume running past open interest. That marks fresh positioning, not closing trades. The bias question does not matter here. The dealer who sold those puts has to hedge, and that hedging is what moves price. There is a shelf at 110 with almost nothing under it. Here’s how I see it playing out. What The Console Flagged On Intel Intel showed bearish interest building from the open. The puts were getting bought on every pop in the stock. The Console pulled two prints at the 80 strike for September 18 expiration. One was 7,000 contracts. The next was 1,700.

Why Oil Won’t Drop Below 85

May 30, 2026

Hey trader, Exxon warned this week that the oil situation is getting dire. The energy tape barely moved on it. The oil futures structure makes that warning real. It tells you more than the headline does. Oil sits in backwardation right now. Forward prices have to converge up toward spot, and that convergence lifts the whole complex over time. You have probably been waiting for energy to confirm before acting. The institutions already started. The Block Hunter Console pulled three energy prints this morning. One of them is a straddle that does not care which way the headline breaks. Here is where the structure sets up. Why Exxon’s Warning Matters Exxon warned that the oil situation is getting dire. That is not a throwaway line from an integrated major. The United States imports more oil than it produces. We export refined energy products, but we do not pump enough crude

Why The Tape Keeps Climbing

May 28, 2026

Hey trader, The market keeps printing new highs. Nobody can point to the reason. Every session the tape drifts a little higher. The financial media reaches for a story that is not there. You have probably been waiting for the pullback that keeps not arriving. The reason has very little to do with the headlines. The Block Hunter Console shows me the large option prints crossing the tape and which side they hit. That is the raw material. The read that matters for a grind like this is the gamma structure those prints build into. I talk about that gamma exposure every day. Here is what the structure looks like right now: The downside puts institutions bought for protection are stacked below price The calls they sold above the tape sit where dealers defend the upside All of it rolls into June and July OPEX, two of the

A $4.5M Bet Nearly Doubled in 4 Hours

May 28, 2026

At 9:49 am this morning a single order hit the tape in Bitdeer, and it wasn’t small. 30,000 call contracts, the June 26 strike at $16.50, around $1.55 apiece. That’s a $4.5 million bet in one print, which tells you right away this isn’t a mom and pop order. But the size isn’t what got my attention. It’s how they bought it. The market in those calls was 95 cents bid, $1.65 offered. A patient buyer sits on the bid and waits. This one didn’t wait. They reached up and paid near the offer on all 30,000 contracts, and you only do that when you want the position on right now and a nickel doesn’t matter to you. That urgency is the tell. We can’t just say a stock looks interesting, we have to show why. So here’s what’s underneath it. Bitdeer has 23% of its float sold short, with

The Hidden XLF Trade

May 27, 2026

Hey trader, Despite the market rally, there is one key sector not participating: financials. Even as the indexes make new all-time highs, the XLF financials ETF continues to drift lower. With everyone focused on semiconductors, it’s easy to dismiss the laggards…but…there might just be a hidden opportunity. You see, the Block Hunter Console pulled three prints this morning: JPMorgan took a 3,517-contract block put at the 275 strike for July 2 KRE (the regional bank ETF) printed a 25,000-contract put spread at 69/67 Bank of America cleared 54,000 contracts on its chain, with 49% of the put side filling at the ask Three different banks, three different expirations, all pointing in the same direction – down. That kind of alignment is rare, and it almost never shows up by accident. When three of the largest names in a sector see coordinated put activity in a single session, the institutions behind

	Today
08.00	OJ & Mac \| Overnight review \| FREE SESSION 08.30 09.20 Don Kaufman \| Early volatility 09.20 10.30 Jeff Bierman \| Market structure 10.30 11.30 Brandon Chapman \| Ghost Hour 11.30 12.30 Gianni Di Poce \| Macro overview 12.30 13.15 Corey Rosenbloom \| Options tactics 13.15 14.00
09.00
10.00
11.00
12.00
13.00
14.00	Tony Rago \| Futures Trading 14.00 15.00
15.00	Blake Young & Mac Holbrook \| Market wrap 15.00 16.00

Blake Young

Corey Rosenbloom

Our Classes

Options Strategies

Day Trading

Swing Trading

Futures & Bonds

Current Masterminds

Don 0DTE Mastermind

Corey's 12-week Mastermind

Retirement Roadmap Mastermind

Matrix Key Mastermind

Today

Most Recent

Get educational market insights sent right to your inbox.