Blanc Charts

06.08.2026: Upside on selected tickers

«GOLD UPDATE: $GLD Gold finished higher overnight at $4247 (4.18%) its highest close in seven weeks after its best daily performance since 3 February. The sharp rally came on building optimism that a diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East is close to being finalised. This in turn would keep downside pressure on oil prices and reduce the need for central banks to raise rates, providing a clear tailwind for gold.…

This is a good one V-shaped reversals. "Speed alone was near a coin flip, and the shock-era versions kept breaking down. The ones that held were near the highs. 9 of 9, higher a year later."

Retail options (II). "The speculative themes that defined retail participation in 2025 ... have seen activity decline 60-80% year-over-year. In their place, investors have overwhelmingly gravitated toward Semiconductors, Software, and broad-market index products, increasingly aligning retail positioning with the largest, most liquid, and institutionally-owned areas of the market." Citadel

Citadel “What retail did as the market was going down? Bought record amount of puts Retail options (I). "Retail traded more than twice as many puts [in July] as the average month since the inception of our platform, with most of the demand concentrated in Index and ETF options. Broad-market ETFs saw total options volume climb to 3.2x the monthly average, the highest level on record."

…and if you look at the chart, you can see that from 18.00 these call options were supporting S&P500 around 7740 level. Then end of day some trading desk stopped buying and it went below 7725

Call option volume. "And there's your epic buying panic blow-off top: yesterday over 4 million S&P call options were bought, the highest level ever recorded". $VOO

Institutional options flow. "Institutional investors have recorded one of their strongest bursts of net call buying on record over the past three sessions, with cumulative flows ranking in the 98th percentile since 2017." Exactly what I was predicting here few days ago https://t.me/blanc_charts/18947

Strategas Equity ETF flows. "2026 continues to blow away any historical comparison." $VOO

China vs. gold. "Chinese institutional investors have swooped on gold in recent weeks ... Gold-backed exchange-traded funds in China saw 14 straight days of inflows up to Monday, the longest streak since March." $GLD

Inflation swaps. "Inflation expectations, as measured by the swaps market, have collapsed in the last two months - whether coincidentally or otherwise, starting to fall just as Kevin Warsh took over at the Federal Reserve."

S&P Global US Composite PMI. "The final July PMI has come in stronger than the earlier flash estimate, signaling an encouraging acceleration in economic growth at the start of the third quarter."