In the market Wednesday the S&P 500 took its first small dip giving the VIX a pop up from its lower channel line that it reversed up from on Monday. Monday's VIX reversal led to the S&P dropping out of its three-week uphill channel Tuesday morning. Since then the S&P has been sideways as they are very determined to keep it from dropping which almost all traders are expecting it to happen very soon because the VIX has a big EMA pair set up ready to lift which is shown in the lower left corner chart above. This same EMA lift setup is what triggered the sell off to begin in late September.
The lower channel line of the VIX is very well defined and technically the market should be beginning to roll over now. However, they are fiercely determined to keep the market going sideways hoping that if it continues sideways long enough it might cause the VIX to drop on down through its lower channel line which would really change the dynamics of where we are at in this cycle. Their efforts being applied against a very heavy market is why the market has become so stale and boring. They know that if they don't break the VIX down through that lower channel line that the S&P could easily roll over and drop 210 points just as fast as it squeezed 210 points up from the sharp "v" bottom.