Yo Pit Crazies,

Does anyone know that the Strait of Hormuz is blocked?

That tickle to all-time highs tells me one of two things:

Traders don't care about oil anymore.

And traders don't need to care about oil anymore.

Now the issue of course is VIX is sky-high for a stock market going to the moon.

It is almost like half of the trading world believes the move higher and the other half does not.

Kind of like how the country is currently divided down the line, VIX is at 18.36, or near dead in the middle.

How is Volatility Reacting?

The reality is volatility did not go down one iota.

In fact… it went up.

See below on the vol-per-strike chart on the SPY May15 700 calls.

The IV per strike was up .50 even as VIX was down on the day. The reality is most traders did not believe the rally, but they were not going to fade it either.

Up goes the volatility.

VIX is a collection of strikes. VIX does have a vega weighting component, so when SPY rallies, VIX should drop mathematically. VIX down today $1.00 was more about the rally in SPY, not the compression of vol per strike.

Traders do not think this is over.

Tomorrow, I am looking for strangles in SPY to buy. This market is going to move, but it might be to 700 SPY before 680.

The next week is here and our Queen of charts, Licia Leslie, does not care about the Strait of Hormuz!

Starting tomorrow she's holding a free “Own the Clock” event where she’ll trade live, and show how easy it is to use and make money from options that expire within the next 24-hours.

Join at this link before it starts!

To Your Trading Success,

AG