The markdown was all in the wings - Options Brief - 22 October 2026

Key arguments

• Friday's at-the-money S&P 500 price fell by about what one fewer session alone would remove, so at-the-money implied vol barely moved; the repricing was concentrated in the wings.
• SKEW and the tail-risk index fell sharply but remain high in absolute terms — Saxo reads this as a tail that got cheaper, not one abandoned.
• Readable flow kept buying downside in financials, consumer staples (spanning the Fed meeting) and energy, against the direction of the markdown; the pipeline drops closing trades, so lifted hedges cannot be shown.
• Median single-name implied-volatility rank fell about three points on both sides of the Atlantic (187 US names to 42.8 from 46.1; 337 euro-zone names to 45.9 from 49.0).

Corresponding source evidence

1. VIX9D lost 4.79% to 15.49 and the thirty-day 3.64% to 16.68, while the one-day gauge rose 1.61% to 11.38 and the one-year was unchanged at 22.03.
2. SpaceX jumped 7.8% after its first profit as a public company and Super Micro Computer 9.6% on stronger guidance.
3. Tesla slipped 3.3% despite beating on profit, its reduced capital-spending plans disappointing.