Happy Friday, traders…

On Wednesday, anyone who follows the Smart Money got a front-row seat to one of the craziest trades in recent memory. 

While most people were spending their morning cluelessly watching charts trade sideways, in-the-know traders were setting their accounts up to make an enormous windfall by the end of the day. 

These kinds of moves seem subtle at first glance — a spike in option premiums here, a swell in call volume there — but in hindsight, they look like deliberate institutional positioning before a major catalyst. 

And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened…

By 1 p.m., the news hit. Trump paused tariffs for 90 days, and the SPY surged nearly 10% — one of the greenest days in years. 

Now, there’s a difference between chasing headlines and catching a setup before it happens. For certain Smart Money players with privileged knowledge, this was the latter. 

This is exactly why we watch what the pros are doing and follow the clues they leave behind. 

The Smart Money always knows something we don’t.

But we don’t need to do anything illegal, or have any “insider information” ourselves…

By checking my OMEN Scanner every morning, you can see their moves ahead of time — and position yourself accordingly. 

With that in mind, let me show you how the Smart Money telegraphed one of the biggest short-term trades we’ve seen in months…

Smart Money Bets Before the Tariff Pause

Just hours before President Trump made his shocking “tariff pause” announcement, certain traders began placing unusually large bets on short-term bullish positions.

Specifically, they were buying 0DTE (zero days to expiration) call options on the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA: SPY).

Looking at the individual call option charts, there was a steady climb in net call premiums on SPY on Wednesday morning:

That was an early hint that institutional players knew something was about to happen. 

These ultra-risky contracts — which would’ve expired worthless unless the underlying made a huge, immediate move — exploded in value once Trump’s announcement dropped. 

Some of them ran up more than 2,000% in under ten minutes, up to 22,500% on the day:

That kind of move can turn small bets into life-changing gains. And one play stood out above the rest…

$260,000 to $5 Million in 4 Hours

A single trader placed a bet of $260,000 on these high-risk 0DTE SPY calls just 15 minutes before the news hit…

By the time the market closed, that position was worth roughly $5 million.

You read that right. A four-hour trade that ballooned into an eight-figure windfall.

To say this raised some eyebrows would be an understatement. Earlier in the day, Trump had posted this on his Truth Social account:

Combine that post with the sudden volume spike and the news that followed, and I can see why people think these Smart Money traders were acting on inside information.

Because they probably were. 

But we don’t care if these traders are following the rules. All we have to do is pay attention to what they’re doing…

The market gives us signals. The Smart Money leaves footprints. 

And if you’ve trained your eyes and ears to follow their tracks, you can catch trades that most people only dream about…

How to Spot Huge Smart Money Moves

What happened Wednesday was an extreme example, and these are not the kinds of trades I advocate for. 

I don’t trade indexes in my services, nor do I trade zero-day options. 

Too risky, too sketchy, too crowded. 

But the concept behind these trades is the foundational principle of my trading strategy:

The Smart Money moves before the chart does. 

That’s why I start every morning by checking my OMEN Scanner. I can see exactly where these guys are placing their bets, check the charts to see if they look good, and then decide if I want to act.

But recently, I’ve been developing another aspect of my strategy…

…Working on a brand-new tool, a proprietary indicator that has the potential to deliver outsized gains that even my Omen Scanner won’t catch…

And I’m even giving away a FREE TRADE IDEA using this tool that could surge over the next seven days.

Click here to see my final warning … before it’s too late.

Happy trading,

Ben Sturgill

*Past performance does not indicate future results