The open interest of $SPX shrank by more than one and a half tenths in a single day, yet the price kept clinging to the week’s lows and dawdling there. Sell-side orders were propping up the bids—on the sell side, active orders were almost double the volume of active buy orders—flooding downward. This isn’t a washout at all; it’s clearly the bulls themselves cutting positions and surrendering. The basis has been pushed into backwardation, the hourly chart direction and momentum indicators have been trending steadily downward. On rebounds, you only see people cancel orders and leave— the further it drops, the less you can find any “catching” hands. As for the bargain-hunting thesis on my side, I don’t buy it. The longs who rush in on this kind of tape are just paying tuition to the market. Don’t use your own principal to bet that the main force will suddenly be kind.