Don Kaufman here.
After +20 years in this business, I know which traders survive market chaos. And which ones get their heads ripped off.
Yesterday, the S&P moved a whopping 30 points. And 71 million option contracts traded.
Last Thursday and Friday?
84 million and 83 million respectively. Those are the three highest option volume days on record.
For perspective: we moved 30 points and traded more options than during most crash days.
This isn't normal market activity.
This is warning shots getting louder.
The Bubble Everyone's Missing
Everyone's focused on NVIDIA at $4.4 trillion.
Yeah, it's suspect.
But that's not where the real risk lies.
The real risk is in all the pieces of crap that got pulled higher.
Goldman Sachs is up 168% over three years.
Is this company literally 168% better off? What exactly have they revolutionized?
Want to know how broken these companies really are? I have a friend who runs all data for Bank of America.
Makes almost a million a year.
His job? "I don't do a damn thing. Sit at a desk with my feet up all the time. It's like being a pilot—you do nothing for 98% of the time."
Bank of America runs on 20-year-old technology.
McDonald's legitimately has better front-end and back-end systems. Yet financials are ripping to new highs while the Fed cuts rates and jobs slow.
Caterpillar is up 200% over three years. 
People who work there would probably agree—the company isn't 200% better off.
The Bottom-Up Bubble Strategy
I don't look at bubbles from the top down. I look from the bottom up.
As NVIDIA rose, arbitrage pulled the entire basket higher. And this basket? Pure garbage.
The XLF (financials) is up 75% over three years. That's ridiculous for firms that haven't revolutionized anything.
Why This Matters Now
What we're seeing isn't selling—it's rotation. Tech gets sold, money rotates into financials and energy. Then vice versa. We're just moving from one side of the boat to the other.
But here's the key: You'll know volatility is coming when correlations get high. When 90-95% of stocks start moving together, the rotation stops and the music turns off.
The VVIX just cracked over 100. That's smart money positioning for what's coming.
The Real Endgame
This marketplace won't crash. Modern bubbles don't crash overnight anymore.
What's gonna happen: We go down, rip back up, go down, rip back up. We systematically dismantle the marketplace through whipsaws that destroy retail.
When tech drags the S&P down, focus on the collateral damage. All the crap that got pulled higher for no reason.
Focus on financials trading at all-time highs with no fundamental justification. Focus on industrials up 200% with no revolutionary improvements.
Don't focus on NVIDIA. Focus on everything that shouldn't be at these levels but got dragged along for the ride.
71 million option contracts don't lie. Something big is coming.
The question is: Will you be positioned for the collateral damage, or will you be the collateral damage?
To your success,
Don Kaufman