Forex

Liquidation Cascades: How a Chain of Forced Liquidations Crashes Leveraged Markets

Liquidation Cascades: How a Chain of Forced Liquidations Crashes Leveraged Markets

6 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas

A liquidation cascade is a chain reaction of forced liquidations in which each closure triggers the next. Price falls into a cluster of liquidation prices, the venue force closes the underwater leveraged positions, and those forced sell orders push price lower still. The lower price reaches the next tier of liquidations, and the loop feeds […]

Open Interest: What It Is, How It Differs from Volume, and How to Read It

Open Interest: What It Is, How It Differs from Volume, and How to Read It

5 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas

Open interest is the number of derivative contracts that are currently open, meaning contracts that have been entered and not yet closed, exercised or expired. It counts positions still standing, not positions traded. One futures or options contract adds a single unit to the total, and it stays there while both sides keep the position […]

SOPR (Spent Output Profit Ratio): Reading On-Chain Profit-Taking and the 1 Line

SOPR (Spent Output Profit Ratio): Reading On-Chain Profit-Taking and the 1 Line

4 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas

SOPR, the spent output profit ratio, shows whether the coins moved on a blockchain were sold above or below what their owners paid. For each spent output it divides the dollar value at the moment of spending by the dollar value when that output was created. Aggregated over a day, a reading above 1 means […]

IV Crush: How Implied Volatility Collapses Option Prices After Earnings and Events

IV Crush: How Implied Volatility Collapses Option Prices After Earnings and Events

3 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas

IV crush is a sudden, sharp fall in an option’s implied volatility that drains the contract’s extrinsic value. The option loses value fast, even when the underlying moves your way. It usually arrives in the minutes after a scheduled event, and the earnings announcement is the classic case. The uncertainty that inflated the premium disappears […]

Fat Finger Errors in Trading: How a Single Keystroke Causes Costly Trades, and How to Avoid Them

Fat Finger Errors in Trading: How a Single Keystroke Causes Costly Trades, and How to Avoid Them

3 October 2026 , Abe Cofnas

A fat finger error is a mistaken trade caused by an input slip. The trader enters the wrong quantity, price, symbol or side, and the order reaches the market as typed. The name describes a clumsy finger landing on the wrong key. It is an accident, not a strategy, and the loss depends on the […]

Gamma Scalping: Trading Realised Volatility with Delta-Neutral Options Hedging

Gamma Scalping: Trading Realised Volatility with Delta-Neutral Options Hedging

28 September 2026 , Abe Cofnas

Gamma scalping is an options strategy that converts movement in the underlying into cash. The trader holds long options, which gives positive gamma and negative theta, then trades the underlying repeatedly to hold total delta at zero. Each re-hedge sells into a rally or buys into a fall, and each one banks a small gain. […]

The Put/Call Ratio: How to Read Options Sentiment and Spot Crowded Extremes

The Put/Call Ratio: How to Read Options Sentiment and Spot Crowded Extremes

28 September 2026 , Abe Cofnas

The put/call ratio divides the number of put contracts traded by the number of call contracts traded over the same period. A reading above one means puts traded more heavily than calls, and a reading below one means calls led. Traders use it as a gauge of options market sentiment, and they read it against […]

TD Sequential: How Tom DeMark’s 9-13 Exhaustion Indicator Spots Reversals

TD Sequential: How Tom DeMark’s 9-13 Exhaustion Indicator Spots Reversals

28 September 2026 , Abe Cofnas

TD Sequential® is Tom DeMark’s trend exhaustion indicator, and it counts bars instead of smoothing price. It runs in two phases: a nine bar Setup and a thirteen bar Countdown. A completed 9 marks a move that may be running out of participants. A completed 13 is the later and rarer version of the same […]

Max Pain in Options: The Strike Where Buyers Lose Most, and Why Price Drifts There

Max Pain in Options: The Strike Where Buyers Lose Most, and Why Price Drifts There

20 September 2026 , Abe Cofnas

Max pain is the settlement price that minimises the total intrinsic value of all open options for one expiry. At that price the writers of those contracts owe the least. Buyers as a group collect the least too, which is where the name comes from. The theory attached to it says price tends to drift […]

Iceberg Orders: How Institutions Hide Large Orders, and How to Spot Them

Iceberg Orders: How Institutions Hide Large Orders, and How to Spot Them

20 September 2026 , Abe Cofnas

An iceberg order is a large limit order that displays only a small slice of its true size. The rest stays hidden, and refreshes automatically as each visible slice fills. The name is literal: the market sees the tip, and the mass sits below the surface. Exchanges also call it a reserve order, and the […]

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