"It doesn't look like anyone pushed out higher stops or there would be volume above the obvious stop points"
Would not there be Volume BELOW the "Stop Loss" triger points as the "Stop Loss Orders" are merely trigger points. NOT Sell Price.
Also, hitting Black Box Technical points also sends an "ALERT" to those using these contraptions. Thus, waking up many who otherwise are going about daily routine business. Thus, there must be many Black Box alarms set to NOT!
And this means plenty of interest among the Technically Dependant!
By the way, the technically dependance statistically never fears well in the somewhat longer run of the Markets. But very large Institutions (Banks and the like) need to have some means of keeping their large Staffs in line and under the Boss's Control. Otherwise these Big Institutions could not function as Big Institutions. The TA stuff is their means of controling their Employees more so than the Markets, and given that Big Institutions are So Big, the TA ends up looking real! And makes for very well noted Mayhem in the Markets, from time to time.
Does TA NOT!!!?
Old Joe