Charlie McElligott note out this morning:
Nomura Cross-Asset – “POST MORTEM, AND THE END OF THE 'SPOT UP, VOL UP' -RUN” (Charlie McElligott, ~June 6, 2026)
Overall Tone
A post-mortem on Friday’s sharp Nasdaq selloff combined with a new structural thesis. McElligott walks through exactly how the mechanical cascade played out (almost to the minute), then introduces what he sees as a potentially bigger regime shift: the end of the 20-year “shrinking equities float” tailwind due to hyperscaler equity issuance and the coming $1.1T AI IPO wave. He remains pragmatically bullish on the fundamental AI capex story but flags a volatility regime change and higher risk of sharp moves.
TL;DR – The Mechanical Cascade Structural Break
What just happened on Friday:
Started in Korea (Patient Zero = high-spec memory names like SK Hynix). Modest profit-taking turned into retail panic mechanical de-risking.
This triggered US negative gamma flows → Options delta unwind massive EOD LevETF rebalancing to sell.
Result: Nasdaq -5% by close. Asia catching down hard on Sunday night reopen (Kospi circuit breaker, Nikkei -3.5%).
The bigger structural point:
Hyperscalers are now de-facto selling long-dated calls on their own stocks via equity issuance (GOOGL already done, META coming).
Combined with ~$1.1T in upcoming AI-related IPO supply, this risks ending the post-GFC era of net equities demand > supply (buybacks shrinking the float).
This creates a potential “Supply > Demand air-pocket” that should normalize the Spot:Vol correlation and help re-steepen skew.
Key Sections Breakdown
1. The Mechanical Cascade (Exactly as Predicted)McElligott had been warning clients in Asia last week that this was a “mechanical inevitability.” The sequence played out almost perfectly:
Over-leveraged AI trade (especially Korean memory LevETFs) → modest sell-off → reflexivity → US options delta unwind → LevETF “vomit rebalancing” (~$51.6B sell-side notional on Friday, with semis and tech leading).
LevETF AUM is now heavily concentrated in Tech/Animal Spirits (86% of the $167B total).
2. The Structural Break – “Supply > Demand”This is the new big idea in the note:
Post-GFC world = Buybacks M&A > new issuance → shrinking float = powerful tailwind.
New world = Hyperscalers burning cash on capex → forced to issue equity massive AI IPO pipeline.
Hyperscalers are now effectively overwriting long-dated calls on their own stocks. This should bleed out the “Spot Up, Vol Up” regime that dominated the last two months.
3. Vol Regime Shift
Expect normalization of Spot:Vol correlation (less “crash up” behavior).
Skew should re-steepen off the recently extreme flat levels.
Traders will have quicker triggers on the way down.
4. Fundamental Bull Case Remains IntactMcElligott is careful not to turn bearish:
AI capex is broadening beyond Mag 7 into the rest of the ecosystem (INTC, DELL, HPE posting huge beats).
S&P 493 earnings growth is accelerating alongside the hyperscalers.
Real money is still underpositioned and will buy dips ahead of strong earnings quarters.