01Cold open: the 75,500 miss and the honest grade
So I am sitting here at 8 in the morning looking at my screen and I am going to be honest with you.
Yesterday I told you to buy the dip at 75,500 on Sensex. The dip went to 74,897. That is 600 points deeper than I said. The level broke.
By close Sensex was at 75,193. If you bought 75,500 you are sitting on a 300 point loss this morning. I owe you that honesty before we go anywhere else.
This is The Tanmay Edge. Episode 45. Season 2.
02Segment 1: the rupee strengthened on a Brent bounce and that is the tell
Here is the part nobody is talking about. While Sensex was breaking 75,500 yesterday afternoon the rupee was strengthening.
USDINR closed 96.19. That is 63 paise stronger than yesterday morning at 96.82. On a day Brent went back up to 107. That should not happen.
If oil rebounds the rupee should weaken. The rupee strengthened anyway. Which means the bid in the rupee is not coming from oil mechanics. It is coming from something else.
03Segment 2: Brent cracked another 3.5 percent overnight
And then I opened my laptop this morning. Brent crude is at 104.07. Last night at 9 PM it was at 107.83. In 11 hours overnight Brent has dropped another 3.5 percent. WTI is at 97.36. Back below 100.
After yesterday's bounce I thought the crack from Wednesday was done. It is not done. The macro story is doubling down while we sleep.
Asia is ripping again. Nikkei up 2.25. Taiwan up 1.61. Hang Seng up 0.92. KOSPI added 0.32 on top of yesterday's 6.80 rip. Four out of four green. US futures green too. Dow up 139. S and P up 12. Nasdaq up 22.
GIFT Nifty at 8 AM is 23,668. That is 14 points above Nifty cash close of 23,654. Small gap up. Not a giant one. A 14 point gap up means today we open pretty much where we closed and the market gets to choose direction on its own.
04Segment 3: what the pro desk actually did yesterday
Now I want to walk you through what the professional desk did yesterday because if you read it as bearish you are going to misread today.
Wednesday Pro flipped from short calls to long calls. 1,55,684 contracts in one session. The biggest single session flip of the season. The bet was a move is coming. The move came. Sensex ran 949 points from open to low yesterday. Biggest intraday range of the May series. The bet got paid on movement.
Thursday Pro did what every desk does after a paid trade. They sold the long calls and bought back insurance. They cut 79,655 long calls. That is 69 percent of Wednesday's flip taken off. They added 96,373 long puts. That is insurance against the weekend. And they added 12,223 long futures on top.
Read that one more time. They cut bullish calls. Added bearish puts. Added bullish futures. The futures stayed long. And the futures are the cleanest read. This is profit taking with a hedge stack. It is not a directional reversal.
05Segment 4: FII doubled down short. The crowd chased late.
Now here is what is interesting. On the same day the Pro desk was trimming the bullish bet the foreign desk was doing the opposite.
FII added 8660 fresh short futures. They added 24,718 fresh short calls. They added 40,196 fresh long puts. Three legs leaning the same way. That is real bearish positioning. The foreign book has been short the index for six weeks now while staying long the underlying stocks. Yesterday they doubled down on the index short.
And the retail crowd. They added 33,471 long calls and sold 43,801 puts. Buying calls and selling puts at the same time after a rally got rejected. That is the textbook late chase.
When the desk and the crowd are on opposite sides, the desk wins. Almost always.
06Segment 5: the Friday trade plan and the 4 to 1 hedge math
Every condition that made me a buyer on Wednesday is still there. Plus a fresh oil crack. The dip-buy thesis lives. It missed the level by 600 points yesterday but it caught the direction the next morning. That is what overnight tape does. It corrects the day's overreaction.
On Nifty the line is 23,600. Yesterday's low was 23,584. So 23,600 to 23,700 is the buy zone. Above 23,800 we sit and watch. Above 23,900 we have a clean run at 24,000 by Monday close. Below 23,600 we wait again.
On Sensex the line is 75,000. Above yesterday's low at 74,897. So 74,900 to 75,300 is the buy zone. Above 75,500 we are back inside the level that broke yesterday and that becomes the ceiling on the retest. Below 74,900 we stand down.
This is not a chase the open trade. The gap up is 14 points. The institutions did not chase the open and you should not either. The buy is on the pullback in the first hour.
And buy with a hedge. Volatility is at 14.84 right now. The 23,500 monthly put costs 60 to 70 rupees. If you are wrong you lose 70. If you are right you make 200 to 300 on the spot run. That is a 4 to 1 trade.
07Segment 6: gold in the duty trap and the cash flow floor
The one thing on my screen that is red. Gold. MCX gold is sitting at 1,59,000. Down another half percent overnight. The duty hike is still digesting. If you own jewellery stocks you are still in the duty trap. If you are watching gold for an entry 1,58,000 is the line to see if it holds. Below that we get a flush.
Cash flows yesterday. Foreign desk sold 1891 crore. Domestic mutual funds bought 2492 crore. Domestic absorbed 132 percent of foreign selling. Third session in a row. Domestic flows are the support under this market right now and they have been for weeks, months and years.
08CTA close: honest grade and buy the dip not the open
Yesterday's honest grade. Four out of six testable calls hit. Brent under 110. Rupee strengthens. Avoid the open. Below 23,700 we wait. The two misses were the 75,500 level and the 24,000 next leg. The level missed by 600. The next leg path never activated. Macro right. Levels tight but wrong direction at the close.
If you want to follow the live calls and the strategy book, RupeeCase Nifty is streaming free on rupeecase.com. Day 4 alpha number prints today.
Have a great Friday guys. Buy the dip. Not the open. This is The Tanmay Edge.