The 100th episode's exam had a trick question in it. We mapped a 24,500 to 24,600 box and the market tore the floor off it in the first thirty minutes: the open at 24,575 was the high of the day, 24,500 broke by 9:45, and the Nifty fell into the air pocket to 24,429 before closing at 24,471, down 112 points. The Sensex lost 388 at 78,154. And the weekly expiry settled 128 points BELOW max pain. Today's first lesson: max pain is a tendency, not a law, the second failure in three expiries.

The grade, given straight: the buy on dips bias was wrong, a stop loss day. What survived was the process. The 1 by 2 call spread lost only its 34 point ticket, about 2,200 rupees a set, exactly as designed. The oil conditional said word for word that oil rallying toward 90 dollars could break 24,500, and Brent went from 87.90 to nearly 89 as the floor gave ...