Indeed, notice how shortzes carefully AVOIDED going below $600.00 today? That would have tripped a large number of 'stop losses' and quickly dropped the SP below the 10% limit where the uptick rule would be triggered:
So instead, they walked the SP back down to $600 by the end of the After-hrs session, and will look to trigger those stops by opening below $600 on Friday
View attachment 642193
Then they can let it go down to below $560 w/o invoking the 'uptick rule' :
$621.44 * 90% = $559.29
Finally, there were 20K Put contracts open at the $600 strike on Thursday morning, so even if they do trigger the 'uptick rule' its likely fine for MMs to let the SP drift back up toward $600 by end of day Friday.
Real professionals, wot?
Titans of Industry, Masters of the Universe. Never worked a day in their lives...
Cheers!