Options Expiration

My male collie gave me the elbow bump this morning, accidentally deleting my morning commentary. His record on trades is break even so far. I keep trying to get him to bump the left elbow, rather than the right. So far it is not working. I may have to become left-handed if this keeps up.

Weekly options expire every Friday and have a significant influence on the markets. Yesterday, the Weekly Expected Move low caught the market’s fall almost to the penny. Today, monthly options expire as well. 

There can be a lot of manipulation leading to monthly expiration. For example, the market is opening at the strike price where most of the options expire. That may explain why the market has whipped around the past few days – but brought us back to this level.

Otherwise, assuming the market holds below the 3928 levels on the futures, it looks like a small topping pattern is forming. That would make sense, as our next intermediate cycle low is slated for early March.