Most shorts are closed much earlier than an hour before close, the point I was trying to make is that there are less intra-day shorts by the end of the day.
The bond market closes & many of the bond traders jump on the futures, than there are the institutional traders that are most active the last hour.
Off topic, but sort of on, SPY followed a pattern of a low after 8 minutes, and then climbed to a little peak at 30 minutes after NYSE open about a month ago. This seemed regular like clockwork for days on end, then stopped for a few before continuing. Then just the dip for a few days. I haven't followed it recently, so I don't know if it is still there. Is this part of the same MM algo process that you see at the end of the day or any of the other reasons presented for the 'end of day blowout?
I’m going to go with option. Also the V shape day is also more often. .50-1% down then reverse end HOD.
MOC imbalance rox the box. https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/how-much-does-the-moc-imbalance-matter-2019-09-27