... and sure enough, they were accumulating. Just over 2 billion in assets added to the balance sheet. To give some context, between April 11-18 the Fed were also net buyers (again accumulating 2 billion) but resumed their selling campaign the following week shedding almost 13 billion in the sell-off that followed. Not only is this textbook trading technique (nothing to do with charts and indicators) but it's also a unique opportunity to watch an extremely large player unwind an enormous position in real-time. Since the Fed doesn't want to 'shock' the market, unwinding a position of this caliber requires a lot of finesse (and by extension will create lots of volatility).
Only 2 or 3 more years of this to normalize the balance sheet barring an outright collapse.
Lower prices ahead, one way or the other