23 June 2025 : Manipulation Traits Observed Today in options

Parameter	What Normally Happens	What Happened Today
IV Drop on Monday	IV usually cools off post-event	IV stayed stubbornly high above 16
Price Movement	Clean move helps options decay or react to delta	Market hovered near short strikes, triggering gamma sensitivity
Premium Behavior	Short options lose value if market is flat	Puts/Ce’s retained high premiums, no decay in ATM
Straddle/Strangle PnL	Profitable if IV drops	Even straddle shorts failed to gain today
Time Decay	MTM should improve by mid-day	You remained in MTM loss or flat from 11 AM to 2:30 PM

 What Does It Suggest?

This points to a classic Market Maker's Trap:

• Artificially holding Nifty in a tight range

• But not letting premiums fall (by keeping IV artificially high)

• Forcing both buyers and sellers to bleed slowly

• Likely accumulation or position build-up under the surface (especially by big players)

 Evidence of “Synthetic Theta Block” (A Market Manipulation Tactic):

• If you have a wide iron condor and perfect zone, yet saw flat MTM for hours.

• Even with negative delta, your position didn’t react sharply to Nifty’s slow up-move — this is often due to unrealistic Vega-Gamma interplay.

• Puts retained value even when Nifty was rallying → unusual unless event risk is being exaggerated.

 What to Learn From This: