The weekly expected move for the S&P this week is $188.88. That means the options market, before a single tweet dropped, before a single headline ran, priced in a range of roughly 6,508 on the downside to 6,695 on the upside. Write those numbers down. Because everything that happened this morning fits inside that range

$5.7 trillion expires today. Not at the open. Not a typo. $5.7 trillion in options contracts clear today. Roughly $2 trillion hit at the morning open when the SPX AM settlement fired, and the rest rolls off at today’s close. Most traders spent the morning watching oil prices and reading headlines about Iran. Here is

I just wrapped my segment on Schwab, and I had to get this out right as the Fed makes its announcement.  Fed Day. Zero rate expectations. And the S&P is sitting on a gamma time bomb. Here’s what nobody’s talking about: dealers are sitting in negative gamma right now. That means if the market starts

Ten weeks. Ten consecutive weeks without breaching the expected move. I have been tracking this data for almost ten years. Hand drawing it. Building scanners to measure it.  It started back when I was employee number thirteen at thinkorswim, building the tools that let traders read what the market was already pricing.  Most traders spend

The Fed meets Wednesday. And I’m already done thinking about it. Not because I don’t care. Because the market already told me everything I need to know — and it’s sitting right there in the expected move. Here’s what I mean. I’ve spent over two decades building frameworks around options and volatility — first at

The Market Priced a $79 Move. It Delivered $30. That Gap Doesn’t Disappear. Markets priced a $79 expected move in the S&P this week. They delivered $30. Most traders called it a quiet day. Here’s why that math should concern you heading into next week. Markets were pricing a $79 expected move in the S&P

We’re supposed to move $224 this week. Actual move? Zero. I woke up really early this morning, pulled up the screens, and I’m looking at this thinking: what the hell is going on here? You got the spoos down 53 handles overnight. VIX heated up around 26. Everything’s red across the board.  But here’s what’s

I just wrapped my Big 3 segment on Schwab and had to get this out before the chaos really hits. Markets feel calmer today. They’re not. VIX is sitting at 25. Volatility futures are still bid. And the SPX is pricing over a $100 move just for this Friday’s expiration. Translation: This week is going

Yesterday VIX hit 35 on a 5% pullback from yearly highs. Today it’s back to 23. Most traders see that as “crisis averted.” I see it as proof this market is completely broken. When Volatility Goes Insane Look, I’ve been trading for over 25 years. I stood on the floor when real crashes happened. I’ve

  Here’s what I noticed this morning that everyone else missed. While traders were panicking about oil hitting $120 and overnight futures looking like death warmed over, I was watching something completely different.  Something that told me this wasn’t the apocalypse – it was compression about to snap. See, most people look at a morning