VIX move on Friday while SPY continued higher

22 gen 2023

This could be a very telling sign for what to expect on Monday. While the SPY (and generally the market) continued to trade higher on Friday (1/20), the VIX hit a low early mid-day and then moved higher into afternoon trading. Another thing to remember is that Friday was the LEAPs options expiration that started over 2 years ago for that expiration. It is typical for markets to be a little volatile during that week of a major expiration, but doesn't really go anywhere; kinda like we saw this past week where we we made another weekly high on Tuesday then sold down pretty good Wednesday/Thursday and then on Friday ended the week with a bull retracement. Now that a major options expiration is done, wouldn't be surprised if we started to see a more directional move on the market and if the VIX action on the second half of the day on Friday is any tell, bearish could be the direction.

Bar chart: SPY
Orange line: VIX