Oil is not the whole story

Geo Chen · Fidenza Macro · March 23, 2026 at 04:45 · ⏱ 1 min read  | Read on Substack ↗
TLDR
The author discusses the market impact of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, specifically involving the US and Iran. Despite a brief after-hours equity surge on comments about winding down military efforts, the author notes that escalation continues, supporting their bearish equity and bullish oil positions. • A social media post by Donald Trump about winding down Middle East military efforts caused a brief after-hours surge in the SPY ETF. • The author narrowly avoided being stopped out of short S&P 500 futures and long oil positions due to the timing of the market close. • Weekend developments, including threats to power grids and critical infrastructure, indicate the US and Iran are escalating tensions rather than winding down. • Iran has signaled intentions to use financial markets as a vector to inflict pain on the US.
Full Analysis

{ "tldr": { "summary": "The author discusses the market impact of geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, specifically involving the US and Iran. Despite a brief after-hours equity surge on comments about winding down military efforts, the author notes that escalation continues, supporting their bearish equity and bullish oil positions.", "key_points": [ "A social media post by Donald Trump about winding down Middle East military efforts caused a brief after-hours surge in the SPY ETF.", "The author narrowly avoided being stopped out of short S&P 500 futures and long oil positions due to the timing of the market close.", "Weekend developments, including threats to power grids and critical infrastructure, indicate the US and Iran are escalating tensions rather than winding down.", "Iran has signaled intentions to use financial markets as a vector to inflict pain on the US." ] }, "trade_ideas": [ { "ticker": "ES", "direction": "SHORT", "confidence": 0.70, "sentiment": -0.60, "quote": "The SPY ETF surged in after-hours trading on this news, and I would have been stopped out of my short ES and long oil had the post come out 30 minutes earlier when the market was open.", "thesis": "The author is short equities due to ongoing and escalating military conflicts between the US and Iran in the Middle East.", "instrument": "futures", "timeframe": "short-term" }, { "ticker": "USO", "direction": "LONG", "confidence": 0.70, "sentiment": 0.70, "quote": "The SPY ETF surged in after-hours trading on this news, and I would have been stopped out of my short ES and long oil had the post come out 30 minutes earlier when the market was open.", "thesis": "The author is long oil as a play on escalating geopolitical tensions and military actions involving the US and Iran in the Middle East.", "instrument": "futures / shares", "timeframe": "short-term" } ] }

Read time 1 min
Length 1,471 chars
Category macro
Trade Ideas
Geo Chen Substack author, Fidenza Macro
The author is short equities due to ongoing and escalating military conflicts between the US and Iran in the Middle East.
Geo Chen Substack author, Fidenza Macro
The author is long oil as a play on escalating geopolitical tensions and military actions involving the US and Iran in the Middle East.
More from Fidenza Macro

This newsletter, published March 23, 2026, features Geo Chen discussing ES, USO. 2 trade ideas extracted by AI with direction and confidence scoring.

Speakers: Geo Chen  · Tickers: ES, USO