Morning Market Notes 08-21-26

Market Calendar

$SPX & $QQQ

Green across the board premarket. QQQ up 0.74% and already trading through the 715 Call Wall. SPY up half a percent at 766, sitting on top of its own 765 Call Wall. VIX down 3.5% and back in the mid-15s. The vol sellers didn't wait for the open.

Yesterday's fade is getting bought. The Treasury rally unwound, yields are still hanging around, and tech is catching the bid anyway. Cooling inflation data has traders leaning back into rate cut bets ahead of Jackson Hole next week, where Warsh gets his first crack at moving the market from the podium. The Dow and small caps are up too, so this is broad, not just a Mag7 squeeze.

The tell today is both index ETFs opening above their Call Walls on a monthly opex Friday. A big slug of open interest rolls off at the close, so lean pin and chop around the big strikes into the afternoon. Macro day is light: Flash Manufacturing and Services PMIs at 9:45, both expected to tick up.

Let's have a sesh.

This old Soldier is at $82K and counting

You read the morning analysis. Blu reads the same notes, then he watches the real-time flow confirm the setups and stacks payouts toward a $100K month. That's the difference between reading about the move and being in it.