01Cold open: a desk had a choice
Welcome back to The Tanmay Edge. Tuesday 5 May. India's first systematic investing terminal that I am building.
Before I tell you what to do today, let me tell you what happened yesterday at the desk that runs the chain.
A desk had a choice. The market had run from 23,997 on Wednesday to 24,290 by Monday lunch. Three sessions of green. Headlines were hot. BJP swept the state polls. Vol popped. Money was on the table. The desk could either lock in profit and go home, or it could write the next move.
It wrote the next move.
02The pro move: sold calls, held futures, trimmed puts
That desk is what we call Pro. Proprietary book. The smartest money on the screen.
Here is what Pro did Monday in one session. Sold 1,20,000 contracts of calls. Held 15,000 contracts of futures bullish. Trimmed long puts by 63,000 contracts.
Read that again slowly. Pro reduced its downside hedge. Pro held its bullish futures. And Pro wrote calls into the rally.
Most desks on the street read this as distribution. The desk is selling the rally. The top is in.
I read it differently. And the difference between those two reads is what today's episode is about.
If you want to lock in profit and exit, you sell futures. You don't sell calls and keep futures long. That is contradictory. Unless you are not exiting. You are setting up the pin.
03What is a pin: magnet vs Wall in plain english
Here is what a pin is, in plain English. A pin is when a strike has heavy calls AND heavy puts written at the same level. Both writers want the price to settle at that strike. Both writers keep their premium if it does. The chain becomes a magnet. The price gets pulled to that strike at expiry.
Yesterday Pro wrote 1,20,000 calls. Pro also looked at the put side. The 24,000 strike already had 8 million contracts of put open interest. Monday added 2.7 million more. The 24,100 strike had 5.95 million calls and 5.47 million puts. Stacked. 11.2 million total.
Now think about it. If the chain is loaded with both calls and puts at 24,000 to 24,100, and Pro just added another 1,25,000 contracts of calls in that range, where does Pro want this to close?
Yes, that's right. 24,000.
That is the magnet. Today is Nifty weekly expiry. Today is when the magnet pulls.
04Overnight tape: three things changed
But the magnet does not pull in a straight line. And the AM tape proves it.
Three things changed overnight.
Brent crude jumped 5 dollars. From 108 yesterday morning to 113.20 right now. The Iran peace talks unwind that we saw last week is reversing. The macro tail is back on the menu. Branch trigger 120 dollars used to be 17 dollars away. Now it is 7 to 8 dollars away.
Two. The rupee broke 95. Yesterday's central bank fix printed 95.08 against the dollar. First close above 95 on record. Intraday hit 95.09. Rupee tail still pricing.
Three. Hang Seng flipped. Monday it was up 1.58 percent. Tuesday morning it is down 1.33. Asia leadership turned. US records also snapped Monday. S&P closed minus 0.41. Nasdaq minus 0.20. Europe sold off harder. CAC minus 1.74. DAX minus 1.26.
Global is risk off softer. Not flight to safety. Just soft.
05Today's plan: buy zone, magnet, cap, wing
What does that mean for the pin?
Open is going to be soft. GIFT is at 24,034 right now, 11 points below yesterday's close. Probably a small gap down. First hour you will see a sell off. India VIX will pop from 18.27 maybe to 19 or 21. People will get scared. They will buy puts. They will sell longs.
That is the entry.
Buy zone is 23,950 to 24,050. That is where you build the long. That is where the wing buyers panic and the magnet starts pulling.
Second half. Vol crushes. Magnet wins. Bounce towards 24,000 to 24,100. Settle in the pin zone.
Cap is 24,200 secondary wall. Then 24,300 hard wall. Above 24,300 the trade is wrong and you are out. Wing is 23,800 to 23,900. Below 23,800 the pin breaks and the wing fires. You are out.
Five predictions for today.
One. Nifty settles inside 24,000 to 24,150. Probability 60 to 65.
Two. 24,300 holds as ceiling. No clean break above.
Three. India VIX does a round trip. Pops first half. Crushes by close.
Four. Day low between 23,950 and 24,050. The buy zone hits. The 23,800 wing does not break.
Five. RupeeCase Nifty 10 Day 2 alpha holds. Day 1 closed plus 33 basis points yesterday. Need a green print versus the index again today.
06Cash flow check: both buying, pair shrinking
A quick word on cash flows because they are with us.
Yesterday foreign investors bought 2835 crore. Domestic investors bought 4764 crore. Both buying. Second straight green day. F&O index all bucket plus 3364 crore. First net positive in 10 plus sessions. The April handoff from foreign selling to foreign buying is starting.
The foreign desk pair trade is shrinking. Stock long book at 8,05,000 contracts. Index short ratio 4.18 to 1. Last Wednesday it was 4.83 to 1. Both legs trimming. That is not a crash setup. That is a desk getting lighter going into expiry.
07Education + RupeeCase rebalance reveal
Education today. Pin trade mechanics in one line. When a chain stacks call AND put open interest at the same strike, the strike is a magnet. When only calls are heavy, the strike is a wall. The wall is where price gets stopped. The magnet is where price gets pulled.
Yesterday writers built BOTH at 24,000 and 24,100. The 24,300 strike is the wall. The 24,000 strike is the magnet. The 23,800 strike is the floor. Two different trades from the same chain.
Yesterday the wing paid. The 76,800 put I told you about Thursday. Today the pin pays. Both came from the same desks. You just have to know which strike does which work.
One last thing.
Yesterday I told you RupeeCase Nifty 10 was rebalancing and I would talk about it today. So here it is. Four out. Four in. Coal India, SBIN, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy exit. Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Nestle, JSW Steel enter. Day 1 alpha plus 33 basis points. Strategy plus 0.86. Nifty plus 0.53. Adani Ports printed 5.41 percent on the entry day. ONGC stayed in the lineup despite minus 2.22. The system rebalances on momentum, not on yesterday's pain. Last rebal 4 May. Next rebal 1 June. Four week cycle. Min invest 25,225.
Streaming live on rupeecase.com.
The market always telegraphs. You just have to know where to look.
You just got earlier. Have a happy expiry.