Thanks for the comments. It's nice to have some confirmation that my thoughts were not coming from left field.
Appreciate your pointing out to watch the tick reading as an indication of program trading. I hadn't connected that dot to the puzzle. Makes a lot of sense given the sharpness of some of the moves. I use QCharts and do have the Tick/Trin displayed just under my major index readings. Need to pay more attention to them.
Everything I have seen also supports your belief that the Fed plays an active role in the markets. Although I have not studied this in detail the coincidence of Fed Temp Ops and corresponding market movements certainly appears to be two big dots with a chain connecting them.
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