...Barely any volume went through at 88.00 for a short time before it went down again.
What do you think a top (and a bottom) would look like? The smartest of smart money and the dumbest of dumb money are small in numbers (counted in percentage terms). They are matched at top and bottom bars.
There are 78 five-minute bars ( and 130 three-minute bars) in a day. Probs to buy at top bar is around 1%, and the chance to sell is 1%. So just selling at the top (not even shorting) is a hard proposition. Maybe less intuitive, the chance to buy at a top (sell a bottom) is also a hard proposition yet we know that 1% of the volume would do it on each day!
The above analysis tells us that on each single day, 1% make money on short side and 1% on the long side (independent of whether it is a bull or bear leg). Those people have to be paid on each day. In addition brokers needs to be paid as well.