Daily Forecast 2026-10-20

📋 Morning Board 📏 Range Forecast Γ Gamma Map 🕰 Analog Days 🎯 9:00 Forecast ✅ Scorecard 🌡 Sentiment

📋Morning Board

Symbol	Prev close	Change	VIX / VXN (pct)	GEX ($B/1%)	Expected range
QQQ	$718.36	+1.21%	25.6 (69th pctile)	-3.16B flip 724.2	1.42% (0.87–2.40)
SPY	$766.48	+0.42%	18.4 (68th pctile)	-4.57B flip 769.5	0.91% (0.53–1.61)

QQQ RSI(2)43 neutral

QQQ vs 200-day+6.4%

QQQ GammaDealers short gamma ($-3.16B per 1% move), flip 724.2 sits -1.4% above spot

How to read this · VIX

σ Volatility Indices (VIX / VXN)

VIX = S&P 500 30-day implied volatility (maps to SPY); VXN = the same measure for the Nasdaq 100 (maps to QQQ). Percentile = share of the past year (252 trading days) that closed below the current value.

Index	Current	Percentile	1-year range	As of
VIX · SPY	18.44	68% pctile · Slightly elevated	13.5 ─ median 17.1 ─ 31.1	2026-10-19
VXN · QQQ	25.56	69% pctile · Slightly elevated	17.2 ─ median 23.3 ─ 33.5	2026-10-19

CBOE official daily closes (VIX from 1990, VXN from 2009). These are closing values, not intraday — the morning brief uses the prior session's close and the evening review the current close, so the series stays consistent with history with no point-in-time bias.

📏Range Forecast

Today's Range Forecast (pre-open)

⚠ 数据陈旧：本预测基于 2026-10-19 的日线（距今约 23 天）。落盘日线可能未更新（检查 PostClose_Rebuild 任务），下面的数字不可用于今日决策。

This section answers one question only: how far price is likely to swing between the open and the close (high minus low). It does not forecast direction — the directional version has been backtested repeatedly and produced no reliable signal.

Symbol	Tier	Forecast day range	80% interval	vs last 20d
SPY	Normal	0.91%	0.53% ~ 1.61%	Slightly above normal
A normal day with no particular signal. Run your usual parameters; no volatility-driven adjustment needed.
QQQ	Normal	1.42%	0.87% ~ 2.40%	Slightly above normal
A normal day with no particular signal. Run your usual parameters; no volatility-driven adjustment needed.

How to read this table
· Forecast day range: how far today's high is from today's low, as a percentage of the current price.For example 0.91% above means the day's high and low are expected to differ by about 0.91%.
· 80% interval:on 8 days out of 10 the actual value lands between 0.53% and 1.61%; on the other 2 it falls outside. That is the honest error band — the real value may be half the forecast, or half again as large.
· Tier: days are bucketed into large / medium / small. When it says “High”, about 6 times out of 10 the day really is large, versus barely 3 in 10 for a blind guess. Good enough to size positions and choose strike width; not good enough to compute precise P&L.
· “Tier” and “vs last 20d” can look contradictory, and that is normal: the tier compares against the past several years, the right-hand column against the last 20 days. “High tier but about normal” means the recent period has itself been high-volatility — today is not exceptional, but the overall environment is jumpy and position sizing should stay cautious.
· A 10:00 intraday revision email follows, folding in the actual range and volume from the first half hour; the forecast gets sharper then.

Technical: out-of-sample R² SPY 0.51 / QQQ 0.48, model refits on every run.

ΓGamma Map

Symbol	Spot	Net GEX ($B per 1%)	Regime	Zero-gamma flip	Call wall	Put wall	Pin
QQQ	$722.85	-0.83B	Dealers short gamma	$728.03 (spot below)	$730 +0.99% · OI 4,385	$720 -0.39% · OI 3,335	—
SPY	$770.73	-0.45B	Dealers short gamma	$771.42 (spot below)	$773 +0.29% · OI 4,013	$768 -0.35% · OI 3,178	—

Positive gamma: dealers sell rallies and buy dips, damping moves. Negative gamma: dealers chase, amplifying moves.

Walls are gamma-weighted, not raw OI. 503-day test: a NEAR call wall is real resistance and breakouts through it run shorter; a FAR call wall breaks more often (a volatility tell). Put walls show no measurable support.

DTE≤7 · Walls use the front expiry · post-close snapshot

🕰Analog Days

Prior close profile (2026-10-19, QQQ $718.36): session +1.21% · 5-day -3.71% · vs 200-DMA +6.4% · below 52-week high -5.4% · RSI2=43 · VIX 18.4 · policy rate 3.63% (1-year -0.48)

Closest analog 2025-02-26 (distance 0.44): session +0.24% · 5-day -4.63% · vs 200-DMA +4.8% · below 52-week high -4.6% · RSI2=17 · VIX 19.1 · policy rate 4.33% (1-year -1.00)
What followed: next day -2.78% · 5-day -2.44% · 20-day -5.87%

Side by side | 2026-10-19 (prior session) +1.21% ↔ 2025-02-26 +0.24%; today maps to the day after 2025-02-26, which was -2.78% (single days are mostly coincidence — the Top-20 statistics below are more reliable)

Analog (top 5)	Distance	That day	Next day	5 days on	RSI2 then	20 days on
2025-02-26	0.44	+0.24%	-2.78%	-2.44%	17	-5.87%
2024-04-22	0.45	+1.01%	+1.49%	+3.33%	41	+8.62%
2024-09-09	0.48	+1.29%	+0.92%	+4.13%	45	+6.08%
2026-06-08	0.48	+1.56%	-1.15%	+3.90%	38	-0.65%
2025-12-18	0.49	+1.45%	+1.30%	+2.43%	57	-0.17%

Top-20 analog statistics (deduplicated — far more reliable than any single day):
Next day mean +0.18% (up 65% of the time, range -2.8% to +3%) · 5-day +0.79% (60%) · 20-day +2.92% (80%)
Note: QQQ drifts up over time, so the unconditional probability of any given next day being positive is already about 55%. Compare the “up %” above against that baseline, not against 50%.

25 features in three equally weighted groups: price position (return / distance to moving averages / position in the 52-week range / trend slope / consecutive up-down days / gaps) + technicals (RSI2 / RSI14 / volatility / relative volume / volume trend / range / KDJ-J / Bollinger %B / MACD histogram) + environment (VIX / rate cycle / credit spreads / dollar index / oil / S&P P/E / CBOE equity P/C / AAII bull-bear spread). Weighted z-score Euclidean distance; matching pool 1999-03-22–2026-10-19 (6938 days, excluding ±60 days around the target). Narrative context, not a trading signal: after four rounds of feature engineering the Top-1 next-day directional hit rate tops out at 54.9%, still below the 57% you get by always guessing up. The data is given in full, but do not use it for direction — it answers “which historical setup does today resemble”, not “will tomorrow be up or down”.

🎯9:00 Forecast

9:00 premarket price$715.46 (vs prior close -0.39%, Prev close $718.28)

LeanBase — no strong signal, lean is small

P(close above 9:00 price)56%

Expected close$715.5

Expected high$720.4

Expected low$710.2

Expected range1.42% (0.87–2.40%)

Gatebase

Features used5 (Missing inputs: oi)

Model versionv0.3-gates · 2026-10-20 09:02:24 ET

Posted at 09:05 ET, scored at 16:45 ET. The ledger keeps every call — misses included.

✅Scorecard

Called	Actual
P(up) 56% · close $715.5 · range $710.2–$720.4	Open $715.25 · High $722.75 · Low $710.39 · Close $717.63 (Close vs 9:00 price +0.30%)

Direction✓ hit

Range inside band✓ hit 1.72% vs 0.87–2.40%

Expected high touchedyes

Expected low touchedno

Brier0.196 Brier (naive) 0.196

Close error0.29% Naive error 0.30%

Running tally · 64 calls scored · direction hit rate 30/64 · avg Brier vs naive 0.257 / 0.257

Naive baseline = "close equals 9:00 price, always 55% up".

🌡Sentiment

AAII Retail Sentiment Survey · week of 2026-10-14

Bull−bear spread -2.9 bulls 38.7% / bears 41.6%

39-year percentile 30.1% · 5-year percentile 47.7% (the distribution has shifted down; use the 5-year figure)

Historically a contrarian indicator, and it takes 3–4 weeks to work, not 1–2. Since 2020 the effect has broken down and at times inverted — low-weight atmosphere only.

CNN Fear & Greed Index · live

27.2 fear

prior close 23.1 · one week ago 44.1 · one month ago 30.4
Percentile since 2022 16.4%

Backtested: no predictive power for same-day or next-day direction (its components are that day's price action, which makes it circular). Forward absolute returns are positive from every bucket; only the magnitude differs — pure atmosphere.

CBOE Equity Put/Call · 2026-10-19

0.55 index P/C 0.99 · total P/C 0.87

Percentile since 2023 27.2% (median over the same period 0.59)
Low = retail crowding into calls (speculative heat); high = heavy put demand (defensive)

Backtested: an extremely low P/C (call mania) does not mark tops — forward returns are in fact slightly positive, the opposite of the popular claim. Atmosphere only.

All four have been backtested: none carries tradable predictive power for same-day or next-day direction. They describe the sentiment backdrop and are not a basis for buying or selling.

Full report: Morning report · Evening report

Research output, not investment advice.