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Last week's SPY price action should look familiar to short-term traders Over at our Substack, The Contrarian Edge, we spent last week making connections between March Madness brackets and stock trading. This week, we’re on to the second round, with commentary about the Round of 32 matchups. But first, let’s talk options volume. Every year, I expect there to be a drop-off in options volume, and every year I’m proven wrong. 2025 was a sixth-straight record-breaking year, with volumes up 24% from 2024, per our friends at Cboe Global Markets. Volume reports for January and February show a continuation of this trend in 2026. The standout story for early 2026 is the continued dominance of 0DTE (zero days to expiry) options. The 63% share of SPX volume attributed to 0DTE in February is itself a new record, per Nasdaq.com, continuing a trend that has reshaped how traders use options — from longer-term hedging vehicles to near-daily tactical instruments. All of this is a long way of saying that there’s never been a better time to get familiar with the ins and outs of options trading. And what better way to do that than equating it with one of the most ubiquitous events in Americana, March Madness? Schaeffer’s Market Madness, Round of 32 I’m going to really let the word ‘supporting’ do the heavy lifting here. UAL is within 3% of its 12-month moving average, after closing above this trendline for the past five months. Per Schaeffer's Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, this signal has occurred 12 times during the last 20 years, after which the stock was higher three month later 75% of the time with an average 17.1% gain. We just booked back-to-back double-digit gains on Celsius and Palantir in Trade of the Week, and we’re eyeing even bigger wins! Every week starts with a fully defined options trade straight from the desk Schaeffer’s Senior V.P. of Research, Todd Salamone, backed by 30+ years of proven market experience and disciplined risk management. Right now, you can get 4 total trades over the next 4 weeks for $40 – just $10 per trade.
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