While you were opening presents, retail took over completely

Hope your Christmas was great.

But while everyone was opening presents yesterday, let me show you what was actually moving markets.

Retail traders now represent 54% of 0DTE volume.

More than half of the $1 trillion in daily notional flow comes from individual investors. Joe from Ohio betting his lunch money on whether SPX goes up or down in the next two hours.

This is completely unprecedented.

Small 1-lot trades -- that's how we track retail activity -- now make up 20% of SPX 0DTE volume. That's double the 2021 levels.

Every major platform jumped in. Robinhood, Charles Schwab, E*TRADE. They made same-day options as easy to trade as buying stocks.

The problem? Most retail traders jumped in without understanding the compression of risk.

Unlike monthly options where time decay happens gradually, 0DTE contracts can lose 50% of their value in the final hour even if the underlying moves favorably.

But some traders who understand the framework are crushing it:
• XSP -- 263% gain in ~3.5 hours
• XSP -- 153% gain in ~5.5 hours
• AAPL -- 152% gain in ~5 hours

All from trades that began and ended the same day.

The difference isn't skill. It's systematic approach vs. lottery mentality.

Earlier this week I walked through the exact framework that separates the systematic winners from the wealth transfer victims.

Watch how the framework actually works

Because while others were distracted, the market kept evolving.

And in this compressed timeframe environment, guessing kills you.

To your success,

Don Kaufman