Good morning! Premarket (even when down a little) is going according to thesis. The slight undervixing vol crunch is going to keep support under the indices as we advance towards ATH. How long do we have to get there?
There are a couple of time periods that can cause some volatility between now and then. The first is volex and opex. In a positive gamma regime, it could provide positive force. But we are mixed with index gamma negative and components gamma positive. So it could be volatile.
The next is debt ceiling that supposedly for 15Dec - 18Dec time-frame. There's no telling how that will play out, since the true deadline is hard to determine. I honestly believe it is more a January story based on the FRED data, but Yellen says sooner, I'll take her word for it.
There's also the Fed, but I think any headache from that is mostly realized at this point. Doubling taper? 3 rate hikes next year? They still react slower to upside risks than downside risks.
So I think next week should be a smooth green week, and hopefully we get close to ATH by then, because debt ceiling could cause some heartache. If we see a spike down, it should be overvixed and provide more fuel.
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Good Morning! I said a lot yesterday, and I stand by it. OI data showing index flip moved down a lot to 4460 area, showing increased put skew and even more vanna to push markets up. Whether we see ATH before the new year is a tougher call, but it is possible.
I guess the question is when will it happen? So much market on close momentum from yesterday makes it seem like downside is the easy call. Once the option liquidity providers step in, we will take off like a rocket. When will that be though?
Started yesterday, but then something happened that caused more put demand, likely Powell comments, and the MM liquidity providers took a step back. Early returns in the overnight are showing relatively small undervixing (big most times though), making overvixing a whopping 7...
Good Morning! Yesterday we got the #OML we asked for, and the big development was a large increase in put buying, creating enough put vanna to fuel a Santa rally for the rest of the year. How high depends on how long we rally until call buying starts.
Call buying creates an initial rally, but then the call vanna starts muting rallies, and we cruise. There are two threats to the rally. The first is the debt ceiling. Yellen is saying we have until 18Dec before we run out of money, but it seems we have a little more time.
The Build Back Better legislation requires so much front funding that we may need to take Yellen at her word. This affects liquidity and importantly the risk calculation on USTs, and that alone creates risk. as of now, put vanna is very strong so any downside might be muted.
Good Morning! Yesterday we got our undervixed bounce, so today's premarket drop is no shock to my followers. The drop is overvixed, but not to the extent that I'd expect. When do I expect a bottom? When yesterday's undervixing is exceeded.
That's when I'll put on trades. Actual trades will be on the VIP account for subs, but in general, I like 17Dec flies. Some things I noticed in this drop...
First, $RUT $RTY $IWM have sneakily entered correction territory. In the bounce yesterday, $RUT dropped, causing severe overvixing in that index. However, $RUT is a lot less flow driven than $SPX. So if you trade that, make sure you size appropriately.
Good Morning! You know that omnipresent Buffett quote "fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”? When I become some massive fund manager (will never happen, lol), my omnipresent quote will be "Hedging is bullish, selling is bearish".
Friday produced a drop that was massively overvixed by 6.83 points. Since volmageddon, this has happened on 6 days. The first was volmaggeddon itself. It resulted in a large bounce, then OML, then bull run.
4 happened in close proximity during Covid drop, and each next day resulted in a bounce. The only time that was different was 6Apr20 when there was a liquidity injection and it was overvixed on an up day. The last was earlier this year where we bounced the next day and had OML.
First, how to calculate $VIX all by yourself. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel, because @CBOE did a fantastic job piecing it together for all of us in the easiest possible terms. cdn.cboe.com/resources/vix/…
2/ Now let's take a quick look at the components and see the various ways $VIX can go up:
1. The most obvious and commonly understood is through heightened IV. If the demand for $SPX options have increased, VIX will go up. While the more common bump in IV is in puts...
3/... that isn't always the case. $VIX can go up from calls as well. Put/call parity and MM risk management prevents massive dislocations, but when observing overvixing, make sure it is in puts. The concurrent rise in $VIX and $SPX tends to be on the call side.
Good morning! Options fairly priced. As a reminder, volex is tomorrow. When we began this expiration cycle, the spread between VIX and VX was very wide, and the question was how would it resolve? Typically VX has the crush on VIX and chases it around.
This time they met in the middle in mutual compromise. However it takes a lot more effort for VIX to meet VX. VX is a futures level, but VIX is a loaded calculation. I keep saying VIX needs context and maybe later today I'll do a quick thread about what that means.
The context that is important right now is vertical skew. This is how VIX went up over the past couple of weeks. The OTM options have been more expensive than normal. Is this an opportunity? How do you short skew? It is hard to do it without a little bit of delta or vega bias.