We hold 200 shares with a cost basis of 39.69, having clung stubbornly and without discipline to Newmont as it experienced its worst one-day decline in memory. My take on the stock, that knowledgeable buyers appeared to be manipulating it lower, was as wrong-headed as could be. There may be more selling today, too, since the stock has an unachieved Hidden Pivot target at 33.50 that feels magnetic. Accordingly, I’ll recommend shorting two Jan 35 calls (NEMAG) on the opening for 1.88, but check back before the opening, since I may need to adjust if the mini-indexes are freefalling. _______ UPDATE: Stocks open in a few minutes. For now, raise the offer on the short Jan 35 calls to 2.20. _______ FURTHER UPDATE: There was a bid of 2.38 at the opening, but no trades until it came down to 2.20, so that’s the price I’ll use. The only logical explanation for this is that no subscribers held the recommended position when stocks opened this morning. Officially, though, we hold a covered write that will help ease the pain and give us more downside protection. _______ FURTHER UPDATE: The covered write expired, with the stock settling against options to leave no net position. Our loss was $250 per round lot, or $500 total. This was the largest loss we’ve experienced on an equity trade in more than four years.