<span class="sec-sub">The read the desk is carrying into Monday, and what would invalidate it.</span>  ·  Le Dossier

A range week — nobody blinked

The week reviewed and the week ahead: index and cross-asset moves, sector rotation, dealer positioning, the earnings calendar, and the insider and options-flow tape.

Published Sunday Oct 4Weekly editionNext issue · Oct 115 min read
01

What mattered this week

The few things from this week that change how next week sets up.

SPY finished the trailing five sessions at −0.22%. Into next week, dealer positioning brackets SPY between the 750 put wall and the 793 call wall. The sections below are built from the desk’s own data: index and cross-asset closes, sector rotation, the coming week’s earnings calendar, disclosed insider buying, and our options-flow scanner.

02

How the desk's week finished

Every trade the desk closed this week, grouped by book, with the best level each reached.

14 trades closed this week, 8 green — 57%.

By book
BookWinsTradesWin rate
daytrade81457%
Best peaks this week
TradeBookPeak
SPY 773C 2026-10-02daytrade+29%
SPY 765P 2026-09-29daytrade+28%
SPY 764P 2026-09-29daytrade+28%
SPY 765P 2026-09-30daytrade+27%
SPY 770C 2026-10-02daytrade+27%
03

How the week actually traded

Index and cross-asset closes measured against where the week began.

Trailing five sessions across the majors, with the last session broken out. Breadth and rotation detail follows in the sector map.

Five-session performance
IndexCloseLast day5 days
S&P 500 (SPY)769.64+0.74%−0.22%
Nasdaq 100 (QQQ)749.58+1.02%+0.68%
Dow (DIA)511.10+0.49%−1.23%
Russell 2000 (IWM)281.52+0.90%−0.16%
04

Cross-Asset

Rates, the dollar, commodities and crypto over the same five sessions. Equity moves that disagree with this table usually lose the argument.

Cross-asset, five sessions
MarketLast5 days
VIX15.31+2.96%
10-yr yield5.277+1.79%
Dollar index101.93+0.95%
WTI crude91.11−1.41%
Gold4,162.3−3.68%
Bitcoin85,108+1.78%
05

Which sectors money rotated into

Five-day performance against twenty-one-day. Upper-right is leadership; lower-left is where money left.

Technology leads over the window at +2.75%; Health Care brings up the rear at −2.98%. Rotation, not direction, is usually the earlier tell.

Rotation map

5-day vs 21-day — upper-right is leadership

LEADINGWEAKENINGLAGGINGIMPROVING21-DAY RETURN5-DAY RETURNXLKXLFXLEXLVXLYXLPXLIXLUXLBXLREXLC
Sector performance
ETFSector1D5D21DYTD
XLKTechnology+1.00%+2.75%+7.45%+38.5%
XLUUtilities+0.37%+1.43%−7.42%−7.8%
XLEEnergy+0.26%+1.18%−2.75%+37.7%
XLYDiscretionary+1.11%+0.96%−5.51%−7.0%
XLIIndustrials+0.76%+0.71%−2.64%+7.6%
XLCCommunication+0.32%−0.79%−2.72%−5.6%
XLBMaterials+0.70%−1.17%−7.14%+6.0%
XLREReal Estate+0.25%−1.34%−7.78%+1.1%
XLFFinancials−0.01%−1.35%−8.66%−2.7%
XLPStaples+0.24%−2.13%−5.52%+3.7%
XLVHealth Care−0.02%−2.98%−4.13%+6.8%
06

Where dealers sit going into next week

Where dealer hedging sits as the week closes, and the strikes that will anchor Monday.

Dealer positioning from listed options open interest. Heavy call strikes act as magnets-then-ceilings when spot trades below them; heavy put strikes mark where hedging flows tend to defend. The walls are the largest single-strike concentrations near the money.

SPY — open-interest profile

Spot 769.72 · call wall 793 (9,442 OI) · put wall 750 (8,208 OI) · pinned between the walls

804799794793 · CALL WALL789784779774769764759754750 · PUT WALL749744739SPOT 769.72
Call OIPut OI

QQQ — open-interest profile

Spot 749.20 · call wall 755 (14,588 OI) · put wall 736 (25,633 OI) · pinned between the walls

782777772767762757755 · CALL WALL752747742737736 · PUT WALL732727722717SPOT 749.20
Call OIPut OI
07

Who reports next week

Companies reporting next week, with the estimates the street is working from.

Grouped by day, then by session — before the open, during hours (slot unconfirmed), after the close. Coverage is every reporter in roughly the top 1,000 by market cap (the large-cap index universe). 27 smaller names reporting in the window are excluded; the full list is available on request. Where a name is on our coverage list, the one-line read is ours.

No reporting company matches.

Reports that move something
NameReadWhenMkt capEPS est
Tuesday, October 6
Before open
RPMRPM International Inc.Before open12.7B$1.95
LWLamb Weston Holdings, Inc.Before open5.7B$0.59
After close
STZConstellation Brands IncAfter close19.3B$3.62
Wednesday, October 7
After close
LEVILevi Strauss & Co.After close7.7B$0.36
APLDApplied Digital CorporationAfter close7.2B($0.25)
Thursday, October 8
Before open
PEPPepsico, Inc.Before open171.4B$2.29
Friday, October 9
Before open
DALDelta Air Lines, Inc.Before open55.3B$1.96

Drift book. Post-earnings drift positions our model is still tracking (10-session window from the report date).

Open drift calls
TickerReportedBiasConfidenceGap
COST09-24Bearish52%−0.9%
NKE10-01Bearish51%−0.7%
08

What insiders and Congress bought this week

This week's disclosed buys from corporate insiders and Congressional filers, sized by dollars committed.

The freshest disclosed buys from corporate insiders and Congressional filers, sized by dollars committed. Filing-date entries retain most of the historical edge; scheduled 10b5-1 activity is labelled and should be discounted.

Recent disclosed buying
FilerTickerTrade dateAmountType
Silverman David MAPH08-05$20,908,476EVP, Human Resources
Shellberg Jeffrey D.BWB08-05$3,366,736Insider
Sullivan DonCSW08-05$1,555,812EVP, Chief Strategy Officer
Blaylock Ronald EPFE08-05$998,821Director
Buckley Mortimer JPFE08-05$960,369Director
Harvey David CCVBF08-05$917,680EVP Chief Operating Officer
Mcwatt MichaelNTB08-05$741,319Managing Director, Cayman
Biglari, SardarLOCO08-05$676,00010% Owner
Prince MatthewNET08-05$177,47610b5-1
Briggs Andrew JFMAO08-05$104,280Insider
09

Where the big options money went

Unusual options activity across the week — the sweeps and blocks large enough to suggest conviction rather than hedging.

Our scanner watches the listed options tape in real time for sweeps and blocks hitting at the ask or the bid across the most liquid underlyings. This week it flagged 86,064 qualifying prints, the largest a $95,060,000 single order. The live tape runs on the dashboard during market hours.

10

What to carry into next week

The read the desk is carrying into Monday, and what would invalidate it.

Positioning resets Monday. The rotation map says where the sponsorship is; the walls say where the friction is. Plan entries at the places those two agree, and let the calendar — not the tape — decide when to be flat.