I was wondering if experienced traders can shed some light on why did RUT soar yesterday (Friday 2nd) while there was doom and gloom news all over? In my opinion people are overreacting in regards to Trumps tarrifs on steel anyway. Just day ahead the ratio of put to call on RUT was 3:1. So what happened? Short squeeze on expiration Friday? Some big shots decided it was time to buy RUT? On march first someone bought 2444 put options with strikes 1475 and 1435 half volume each! It was not part of a spread. Couldn't see matching numbers. Anyway, I can't tell who/what moved RUT yesterday.
Honestly, it's been going on for 9 years now. Moonshots on Friday's are nothing new, regardless of how bullish/bearish the market had been prior to that particular day.
That doesn't follow at all from what Kevin said. Nor did he state or imply that there's anything "simple" about it. He simply offered (correctly) one of the realities related to the phenomenon you asked about in your original post. I imagine he wasn't expecting such a dismissively sarcastic response to his potentially helpful observation. I certainly wouldn't have expected that, either - especially from member who joined the forum yesterday and was making only his second post here! I offer you the observation that the forum may prove more valuable to you if you're polite, rather than dismissive, to the natives. At least when you're a new arrival and asking those with more experience than yourself to explain something to you.
Omg! This is heating up... Let's see if I can calm it down with a more detailed explanation. A lot is about preception. To me this particular "Honestly" = "Really? You are asking this? You didn't know this?" So that reply already sounded dismissive to me. It's not nice to treat a newbee like that. I have a stinger too. "Honestly, it's been going on..." vs "Not sure, but it's been going on..." What's there "honest" about what is the market doing? How about this: "I was wondering if more experienced astronomers could tell me why is it we occasionlly see the full Moon and the Sun at the same time in the sky at daytime when that is not in line with the heliocentric theory? " "Honestly, it's been going on for billions of years" "Thank you for the insightful comment mr astronomer!" The reference to the cave in the next reply kind of supports my initial impression. Didn't I start the post by implying that I am not very experienced at trading? The moves are difficult to predict but hind sight is always 20/20. There is an explanation for this. I am just not sure how to analyze it. Some people working at the exchange probably know which bank went long on the index and voila. Jim Cramer wrote about this in his books. Anyway, it was not my intention to be rude and I do welcome comments. We should all do pinky promise here and play nicely.
OP thinks the market overreacted to trumps tariffs and then is surprised the market rallied the next day.
My guess - free trade has given large multinational corps huge structural advantages vs smaller domestic companies over the years, and the market now perceives the playing field may level. Couple this with the fact that retaliatory tariffs from other countries are more likely to hurt the Caterpillar's of the world than the domestic "Tacoma tractor" companies, and big-corps pain might be small-corps gain.