Massive Sell Program Slams S&P500 Below 3300

Just as were bringing readers a warning from BMO technician Russ Visch that a drop below 3,310 in the S&P would breach the mid-September support and open a door for a retest of 3,233…

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… a massive selling program hit at exactly 1:30pm, which sent the NYSE TICK index (number of securities trading on an uptick less trading on a downtick) to session lows of -1,713…

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… which together with yesterday’s morning wholesale dump which saw the TICK open the puke-like -1,897, was the biggest program selling going all the way back to the mid-June dump.

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Curiously, just moments before the sell program hit, the VIX – which had been trading rangebound all day despite the market weakness in yet another quirk of quad-witching – spiked, potentially triggering the sharp cross-asset selloff and while bonds remain unchanged even the dollar is starting to move (higher).

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The 1:30pm sell program was notable because coming on the already twitchy quad-witching day, it pushed the S&P below 3,300 – almost as if that was the intention – with the EMini suddenly dumping 20 points in bidless action before the S&P future recovered around 3,280, the lowest level since early August.

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And so with 3,300 now in the rearview mirror, the onus is now on the Robinhood BTFD crew to show that they can prop up the market in a time when the Fed’s dedication to the bullish cause is suddenly in question.