Friday's close: 24,252. Friday's max pain: 24,250. Two points. Episode 109 opens on a market parked exactly on its magnet with expiry tomorrow, and walks the collision course set for Monday: a hundred point gap that wants to open above the 24300 resistance, against a wall of 135 lakh freshly written calls defending it.

Friday's tape: Nifty 24,252.00, up 20.15 points (+0.08%), the second higher close in a row, inside a 77 point coil, the tightest session in weeks. It opened at 24,284 (the day's high, exactly at the resistance called on Friday's episode), faded into 24,206.80 (the buy zone called), and got squeezed back to the middle. Breadth dead even at 25 up, 24 down. The Sensex finished 3 points changed after a 280 point round trip. And a detail that matters: India VIX ROSE 4.2% to 11.21 on a flat day while option premiums fell, protectio ...