VA

[SpotGamma @spotgamma]

This "every big trade is insider trading" narrative is everywhere. You’ve got a conspiracy hammer, so everything looks like an insider nail.

Take this DOW May 37.5 Call that blew up on April 8th. Someone claims “they” bought 5k contracts, stock bounced, and “they” made 80%. Classic robber baron story, right?

Not quite.

A huge chunk of options volume isn’t buyside (retail or hedge funds) piling in. It’s liquidity providers (banks, market makers) trading against themselves or facilitating flow.
Here’s what actually happened with the DOW $37.5 May calls (see table):

Open interest jumped from ~1,860 on Apr 7 to 6,510 on Apr 8 → yes, ~+5k contracts traded.
Then it dropped to 4,426 on Apr 9. If this was some genius insider long who “knew” the bounce… why didn’t OI collapse when they supposedly cashed out?

Also… why ignore the ~10k flow in the May 42.5 calls or the 8k in April 40 calls that printed around the same time? More insiders throwing us off the scent? Or maybe it was just a spread.

Back to the 37.5s:
Our data shows buyside (customers) went into Apr 8 SHORT ~1,000 of these calls. By close, they were net +394.

So it looks like someone covered their ~1k short (makes sense — stock was down ~10%, short calls were getting crushed), and buyside ended up modestly long ~400.

That explains ~1,500 of the 5k. What about the other ~3,500?

Liquidity providers stepped in. Some bought, some sold. They’re the ones carrying a big chunk of that open interest now — not some singular “they” with inside info.

Not every large print is a shadowy cabal front-running the market. Sometimes it’s just market makers doing their job, providing liquidity, and hedging.
The insider trading obsession ignores how options actually work.

[عبدالعزيز المقبل @AzizSapphire]

The global dynamics of LNG imports & exports

[The Kobeissi Letter @KobeissiLetter]

Is this the best timed trade of 2026?

At 6:50 AM ET today, $1.5 BILLION in notional value worth of S&P 500 futures contracts were bought.

This trade was so large it sent the entire index +0.3% higher that minute.

Then, 14 minutes later at 7:04 AM ET, President Trump announced "productive discussions" with Iran were underway.

By 7:10 AM ET, the S&P 500 had added +$2 TRILLION in market cap.

That $1.5 billion position gained +$60 million in minutes.

Absolutely incredible.

[Giovanni Staunovo🛢 @staunovo]

Contracts representing millions of barrels of oil changed hands about 15 minutes before a social media post from US President Donald Trump that sent crude prices tumbling by as much as 14%.

Futures corresponding to at least 6 million barrels of Brent and West Texas Intermediate were sold in the two minutes from 6:49 a.m. in Washington on Monday, according to exchange data compiled by Bloomberg. The average for the same time period over the previous five trading days was about 700 lots — or 700,000 barrels. Trump’s Truth Social post was published at around 7:05 a.m.
#oott https://t.co/Z6ZLCHON6L

[Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal]

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Is Trump prepping for another B-2 stealth strike on Iran? Because the Lajes air base in the Azores is suddenly looking like the pregame bar for Operation Midnight Hammer 2.0.

Quick refresher: Operation Midnight Hammer was last June’s “surprise, your nuclear sites have visitors” mission where B-2 Spirits ghosted into Iran, dropped their calling cards, and ghosted right back out.

Those bombers only made the marathon because they were refueled mid-air by KC-135 tankers parked at, you guessed it, Lajes air base.

And now?

15 of those same tankers are suddenly sitting on that tiny Portuguese island in the middle of the Atlantic, a place the U.S. uses as a secret global pit stop for long-range strikes.

You don’t send that many flying gas cans to an island unless somebody is mapping out a very spicy itinerary.

Source: @sentdefender

[VA @Flow_Readers]

@Rus_Khairullin Россия, СПб

[VA @Flow_Readers]

@Rus_Khairullin Здарова!

[VA @Flow_Readers]

Вы помните, когда зарегистрировались в X? Я — да. #МояГодовщинаВX

[Russian Market @runews]

Do you support Russia?

[The Dor Brothers @thedorbrothers]

The Drill

Song: T-Pain by @PeteandBas

Created using @Hailuo_AI and @krea_ai

@elonmusk @ianmiles @TonyHinchcliffe @tunguz @cb_doge @DefiantLs @nelkboys @TheFigen_ @FearedBuck @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr @jordanbpeterson @charliekirk11

[GoldmanForts @GoldmanForts]

С десяток раз пересмотрел)
https://t.co/TPfz4Jf6rB

[Tom Dante @Trader_Dante]

My average trading day

[Tracy Shuchart (𝒞𝒽𝒾 ) @chigrl]

George Carlin was ahead of his time:

"Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They've long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear."

[Andy Constan @dampedspring]

$JHEQX update Here is what is happening at JPM. At some point today the roll will happen. The new trade will be delta neutral for the dealers because it will include a deep ITM June 30th call they sell. In addition the dealers will be short a deep in the money put which they

[Andy Constan @dampedspring]

Wrote this 101 on The Eurodollar market this summer for my clients. Forgot to post it here. Perhaps this will help people who were trying to follow the great back and forth this weekend between @TotemMacro and @SantiagoAuFund

[Ayesha Tariq, CFA @AyeshaTariq]

Where are we now?

I'd say in the middle of the slowdown.

[Robot James 🤖🏖 @therobotjames]

stop trying to beat djokovic at tennis.

the first fundamental problem traders run up against is that there's no beginners' market.

you gotta compete for good prices with the best in the market.

this is a problem.

there are a lot of people better at markets than you.

[GoldmanForts @GoldmanForts]

Классный материал: как изменилась экономика Ирана в условиях западных санкций.
Однозначно стоит почитать 👇
https://t.co/vyx7km6nlr

[Ayesha Tariq, CFA @AyeshaTariq]

Happy September