Unintended consequence of the short sale ban, but your friendly anchors on CNBC won't tell you that. I get a chuckle whenever I see or hear someone say "just imagine how bad things would be if they still allowed short selling." For some reason it's not computing in their heads that this recent volatility expansion occurred after the short sale ban... hmmm I wonder if there might be a cause & effect relationship there. Who else do they think is going to buy when the market is crashing?
It was a Hershey Pumpmaster formation, which calls a breakout 97.4% of the time over the last 20 years.