Another thing that was not mentioned was the simple mechanics of expiration week. Let's not forget that during options expiration, there is a clear agenda to keep stocks from expiring through specific strikes. Coming into this week the "MaxPain" was 1100 SPX and lo and behold the market settled within about 5 handles and straddled that level for 3 days.
I think the Tuesday gap higher(similar to April 16th-April expiration cycle) put in motion a very neutral market where shorts were not going to be too aggressive in their selling because technically we broke above 10 Day line resistance and bulls were just picking at the pullbacks and we just kind of "chopped higher".
Someone also mentioned that the dollar is not confirming this move, which I think says alot. It is also worth noting that last expiration cycle we had a very choppy 3 days following the April 16th spike, with a news shock on April 18th when that plane went flying into the Pirelli building in Milan, only to be followed by more chop around the 1125 pivot for that expiration cycle. The following Monday we gapped lower and set in motion a week long decline that was straight down with hardly a retracement.
Not saying this would happen again, but I would never make any "macro" analysis based on these expiration runs. They have proven over the years to be real fakeouts alot of times...
I think the Tuesday gap higher(similar to April 16th-April expiration cycle) put in motion a very neutral market where shorts were not going to be too aggressive in their selling because technically we broke above 10 Day line resistance and bulls were just picking at the pullbacks and we just kind of "chopped higher".
Someone also mentioned that the dollar is not confirming this move, which I think says alot. It is also worth noting that last expiration cycle we had a very choppy 3 days following the April 16th spike, with a news shock on April 18th when that plane went flying into the Pirelli building in Milan, only to be followed by more chop around the 1125 pivot for that expiration cycle. The following Monday we gapped lower and set in motion a week long decline that was straight down with hardly a retracement.
Not saying this would happen again, but I would never make any "macro" analysis based on these expiration runs. They have proven over the years to be real fakeouts alot of times...