Cats Whisker From the ATH. Two NATHs. VIX Shrugs and Lights a Cigarette. The Crash Up Continues.

The crash up that the 21-year MACD-v research flagged as continuation – not reversal – is running exactly as advertised. NATHs on two of the four indexes. ES and NQ printing new records. Russell is next in line. The Dow has further to go before all four are in alignment, but the direction is not in question.

Meanwhile April 21 is five days away. The market’s response to this live binary has been a very French shrug. VIX at 18. Declining. Blowing smoke rings at the geopolitical calendar. The headlines haven’t changed – Hormuz is still closed, the deadline is still real, stagflation risk is still on the table. The chart, however, has decided to focus on the ATH.

Now – I want to be honest. The April 21 deadline matters. It is a real binary. Escalation remains possible. But the process does not require me to have a view on geopolitics. It requires me to follow the signal. The signal is bullish. The GEX picture confirms it: the 7,000 level that was the ceiling all of last week has flipped to the floor. Nearly 9 billion in positive gamma sitting underneath us.

On the Premium Poppers front – Wednesday delivered cleanly. 1st BO and 3rd BO. $9 and $7 on the index. 64.3% and 60.0% ROC. No drama. The system is running exactly as it should.

Overnight futures are already pointing higher.

Market Briefing:

Thursday 16 Apr.

• SPX closed 7,022.96 – three points from the ATH at 7,026.24 – NATHs confirmed on ES and NQ futures overnight

• MACD-v at bullish extreme: 21-year 30-minute data research = continuation signal, not reversal – this is the operative read

• GEX update (15 Apr data): 7,000 flips from resistance to support – biggest node on the board at ~8.75B – next ceiling 7,050 then 7,100

• April 21 ceasefire expiry: five days away – Trump told NY Post second talks could happen within days – binary outcome approaching

• Bank of America earnings today – Goldman beat Tuesday (profit +19%, record equities revenue, Solomon Q2-Q3 warning, shares -2%)

• VIX: 18.00 / declining / below 22 / rising trendline still in view but not threatening the current read

• ES and NQ: NATHs / RUT: next in line – constructive, not there yet / Dow: below NATH 50,611, further to travel

• Overnight futures: already pointing higher / Thursday continuation setup intact / WTI 91.91 / Gold 4,849.6

Market Snapshot

• ES: 7,064.50 / NATHs

• YM: 48,726 / Dow NATH still at 50,611 – the remaining hill

• NQ: 26,399 / NATHs

• RTY: 2,729.3 / queuing for NATHs – next in line

• GC: 4,849.6 / gold bid intact / stagflation play active

• CL: 91.91 / WTI holding / Hormuz blockade active

• VIX: 18.00 / declining / very French non-response to April 21

• BTC: 74,887.92 / stalling at upper channel boundary / more below

Tag ‘n Turn

SPX: Bullish. MACD-v at bullish extreme. The continuation sequence is running.

RUT: Bullish. MACD-v constructive. Lagging SPX but the direction is the same.

The runaway gap sequence from the 6,400 lows is still active. Both instruments are in confirmed bullish TnT reads. The key analytical thread this week is the MACD-v sitting at a bullish extreme: per the 21-year, 30-minute data research, this configuration in a confirmed bullish TnT with active runaway gap conditions signals continuation, not reversal.

SPX briefly flipped bearish mid-week and recovered immediately. That is textbook trend-strength behavior – failed reversals in a strong move tend to accelerate the original direction. The signal was brief. The recovery was fast. The read has not changed.

SPX Analysis

Bullish. ATH 7,026.24 is three points above the close. MACD-v at bullish extreme. BB %b 0.87. The chart is banging on the door.

The daily sequence from the lows has not paused. Each session has added to the runaway gap picture. The MACD-v at bullish extreme is doing exactly what the 21-year research said it would do. The BB %b at 0.87 confirms expansion toward the upper band – consistent with a trend in motion, not a trend that is about to reverse.

The brief Bearish TnT flip this week was absorbed without consequence. Price recovered, the signal reset, and the upward sequence resumed. That is not a warning sign. That is what a strong trend looks like when it meets a temporary hiccup.

Three points. The ATH is effectively here.

Current Status: Bullish (Flipped) / TnT level 6,793.5 / PFZ 6,753.15 / Target Pending / ATR 94.50 / ATH 7,026.24 three points above

Gamma Exposure

7,000 flips. From the dominant call wall ceiling to the dominant positive gamma support floor. Nearly 9 billion sitting there. This is a significant mechanical shift.

The 7,000 level was the resistance ceiling all of last week – the point where dealers in negative gamma territory above the flip were sellers into any rally. Now that SPX has pushed through and is sitting above it at 7,022.96, the 8.75B positive gamma node at 7,000 becomes the mechanical floor. Dealers in positive gamma territory buy as price falls toward the level and sell as it rises away from it. With that much gamma at 7,000, any pullback from the ATH has a significant mechanical buyer waiting.

Next points of interest: 7,050 (moderate node, approximately 2.5B) and 7,100 (second meaningful spike, approximately 5B). The IV picture is subdued given the macro backdrop – IV at 14.65% against historic vol at 17.65% is consistent with positive gamma suppression dynamics.

• IV: 14.65% / Historic Vol: 17.65% / IV Rank: 21.04% / IV Percentile: 60%

• Gamma flip: 6,438.11

• Put wall: 7,000 / Call wall: 7,000

RUT Analysis

Bullish. Lagging SPX on the NATHs count but the sequence is constructive. Russell is next in line.

The RUT daily has been building the same runaway gap picture as SPX. Four-index NATH alignment is not yet in place – RUT hasn’t printed its NATH and the Dow has further to go. But the direction is the same across all four. When RUT catches up, the participation read becomes considerably broader.

The TnT is holding the bullish read cleanly. MACD-v is constructive. The lagging is not a concern at this stage – it is the sequence, not the pace, that matters.

Current Status: Bullish (Flipped) / TnT level 2,771.92 / PFZ 2,702.1 / Target Pending / queuing for NATHs

Post Trade DeBriefing

Two trades on Wednesday. Both worked. Both were clean.

Trade 1 – 1st BO. Entered at 1.40 credit on the SPX spread. Standard 1st breakout setup. Closed at 0.50. The index moved $9 in our favor. That is a 64.3% ROC from a $9 move.

Trade 2 – 3rd BO. Entered at 1.75 credit. Same logic, later in the session. Closed at 0.70. Index moved $7. That is a 60.0% ROC from a $7 move.

Both trades ran on a straight-line trending session with clean VWAP behavior – exactly the Premium Popper playbook. No headache. The market did what it does when it wants to cooperate and the system collected its premium.

The two-trade Wednesday has been a recurring pattern this week. The system is delivering.

Rounding Off

The four-index picture. ES and NQ have printed NATHs in the futures session. SPX cash is three points away from clearing 7,026.24. RUT is queuing – constructive but not yet there. The Dow is further back, still below its NATH at 50,611. Full four-index alignment is not yet in place, but two out of four – and a third within touching distance – is a meaningful read. The crash up has not needed all four to confirm to keep running.

April 21. Five days away. Trump told the NY Post that second talks could happen within days. That phrasing is softer than Vance’s “they chose not to accept our terms” from last week. Whether that softening translates into anything concrete is the question the market is apparently not asking. VIX at 18 and declining is the market’s answer: not today.

Bank of America reporting today. Goldman beat on Tuesday – profit +19%, record equities revenue, FICC -10% miss, shares fell 2%, Solomon flagged Q2-Q3 uncertainty. Earnings season so far: mixed backdrop against a market that doesn’t care.

Current Status: GEX 7,000 = support / SPX three points from ATH / April 21 five days / VIX 18 declining / Bank of America reporting / BTC upper channel boundary tagged

Expert Insights

Five days to April 21. Hormuz active. Stagflation risk on the table. And the market is three points from the all-time high.

The investors who moved to the sidelines – waiting for clarity, waiting for the geopolitical binary to resolve, waiting for a cleaner backdrop – are watching this from the outside. The capital that left to prepare for a correction is the capital that is not participating in this move.

The process stays the same. The signal is the signal. Follow it, respect the stop, let the trade run. The correction the crowd was preparing for is not here yet. The chart is.

[Source: Peter Lynch – One Up On Wall Street (1989) and widely attributed in Barron’s Roundtable interviews, 1995, public |
SpotGamma GEX data, 15 April 2026, spotgamma.com]

1 – The GEX flip at 7,000 from call wall resistance to the dominant positive gamma support node represents a regime change in dealer hedging mechanics. At approximately 8.75 billion in positive gamma, market makers are now structurally net long gamma at 7,000 – which means they are buyers into any dip toward that level and sellers into any extension above it. [Source: SpotGamma gamma exposure data, $SPX, 15 April 2026, spotgamma.com]. The positive gamma regime above the flip point at 6,438.11 mechanically dampens volatility and supports a gradual directional drift upward. IV at 14.65% sitting below historic vol at 17.65% is consistent with this suppression dynamic – the market is quiet relative to recent realized volatility, which is unusual given the macro backdrop.

2 – The MACD-v at bullish extreme in a confirmed bullish TnT with active runaway gap conditions is the continuation configuration identified in 21 years of 30-minute SPX data. The brief Bearish TnT flip mid-week and immediate recovery is consistent with continuation behavior in high-momentum trend conditions – failed reversals in strong trends have historically accelerated the original direction rather than signaling exhaustion. The BB %b reading of 0.87 on SPX confirms expansion toward the upper band, which in a trend context is not an overbought signal – it is a momentum confirmation.

3 – The VIX at 18.00 and declining, against an active Hormuz blockade and a five-day hard geopolitical deadline, is a historically low fear reading for the conditions in play. The CBOE VIX below 20 has historically corresponded to positive forward equity returns over 3 to 12 month horizons in the majority of cases. [Source: CBOE VIX index data, public | Bespoke Investment Group historical VIX analysis, public]. The market’s apparent indifference to April 21 reflects either institutional conviction in a resolution or the accumulated TACO pattern expectation that deadlines will be softened rather than enforced. Both interpretations are currently bullish for equities. The rising VIX trendline from the volatility peak remains technically visible but is not generating a signal at current levels.

Fun Fact:

The phrase “climbing a wall of worry” has been part of market vocabulary since at least the 1950s, used to describe the tendency of bull markets to advance steadily despite persistent negative headlines, geopolitical risk, and investor anxiety.

The logic: as long as most investors remain nervous enough to stay partly in cash or on the sidelines, there is capital available to flow into equities as each new fear proves less catastrophic than anticipated. The sideline money – the investors who sold to wait for clarity – provides the fuel for the next leg higher.

[Source: “Wall of Worry” – widely cited market expression referenced in Stock Trader’s Almanac editions from the 1970s onwards, public |
Investopedia definition, public]

Trade well,
T2 Markets

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