We hold the August 175-170 put spread twice for a 0.05 debit.  One easy way to “cover” the spread is to buy two offsetting August 170-175 call spreads. Let’s start by trying to buy an August 170 call today for $170 or less.  If we’re successful, the worst we can do at expiration would be to make $325 per spread, or $650 on the position. This tactic will leave us with two September 175 calls to short if and when the stock rallies.  The premium we receive for them would boost the $325 gain on the spread by the amount of the sale.  You can take 0.15 of discretion on the bid for August 170 calls. ______ UPDATE (3:13 p.m. ): With a Hidden Pivot bottom in sight, I couldn’t resist buying some Sep 175 calls even though they only partially hedge our put spreads rather than offset them.  We acquired the calls for 1.60 when IBM was near its so far intraday low of 166.52. They are currently trading for around 2.35, and I’ll suggest for now that you do nothing further.