At noon on Wednesday the Nifty sat at 24,266, down two hundred points, deep in the exact air pocket episode 101 mapped. Then somebody wrote a 5,842 crore cheque at the bottom. Domestic funds made their biggest single day purchase of the month, straight into a falling knife, on the same day foreign institutions sold 1,002 crore of cash and added to index futures shorts now at 1.65 lakh contracts. The V that followed recovered 170 points into a 24,435 close, down just 36. The open at 24,472 was the high of the day, the third straight session where the best print came in the first minutes.

The options board delivered three lessons. One, max pain has slid three days in a row, 24,600 to 24,500 to 24,400: a falling max pain is a trend follower, not a floor, the magnet chases price rather than pulling it. Two, call writers are chasing too, 42 lakh ...