From Zero Hedge earlier today- A significant point when looking at the market---
A few years ago Newfound Research put out an interesting piece called “Liquidity Cascades”. Below is a diagram from that note which outlines the feedback loop in markets from Fed policy to market activity. SpotGamma highlights the bottom right quadrant in red, which is what we mark as our current position. If you believe that options trading invokes dealer – that hedging is both momentum driven flow and price taking. Additionally, market makers cannot wait on a stock bid getting hit if their risk is too high – they will pay spread and take price. This is what makes that short dated volume from above such an issue in these markets which have lower levels of liquidity. It can amplify volatility in the ways we saw Thursday, Friday, and Monday, and have investors trying to draw fundamental conclusions from positional options hedging flows.
Perhaps today's plunge is more of the same amplification flow.
As we have stated endlessly this year, markets rallying from put sales are inherently unstable, and we need to see call positions come in to quell volatility... for now we are not seeing that.