Disclosure: This was simulated trading, not a live-money trade.

On September 17, I opened a SPY 764/754 bear put spread expiring October 16. At expiration, the 754 put expired and the 764 put was exercised, resulting in the sale of 100 SPY shares at $764. With no shares held against that sale, I was left short 100 shares.

The interesting part was managing that short position afterward.

While the short was temporarily underwater, I was monitoring several aspects of the options market:

● Negative GEX: the model I was monitoring showed estimated net dealer gamma exposure remaining negative.

● Spot below the gamma flip: SPY remained below the model’s estimated gamma flip level.

● Rising implied volatility: IV was increasing rather than normalizing.

● Backwardation in SPY’s implied-volatility term structure: near-term IV was higher than longer-dated IV.

● Backwardation in the VIX futures curve: nearer-dated VIX futures were trading above farther-dated contracts.

● Shifting positioning levels: major GEX…