As the week draws to an end, we’ll temporarily put aside our plan to buy puts on strength. At the moment, the Cubes looked bound at least moderately lower, to the 67.49 target shown. You can bottom-fish there with a stop-loss as tight as 4-5 ticks, but keep in mind that we’ll be looking to short any rally that promises to sputter out at a minor Hidden Pivot swing point. ______ UPDATE (11:25 a.m. EDT): After falling to a low 11 cents from the correction target given above, QQQ is in the throes of a truly stupid rally. Let’s reactivate the bid for Nov 62 puts, bidding 0.75 for four of them and 0.72 for four more. This is a day order. _______ UPDATE (August 27, 1:12 a.m. EDT): As of early Monday morning, index futures weren’t getting much lift from Friday’s patent news concerning Apple. Even so, we’ll practice restraint as we try to buy Nov 62 puts again. Bid 0.74 for eight of them on the opening, but if you’re not filled, lower the bid to 0.72 and leave it in for the day. _______ UPDATE (August 28, 12:28 a.m. EDT): Chat-roomers reported fills at 0.72, the low of the day, so I’ll track eight Nov 62 puts bought for that price. Since it is our custom to take at least a small partial-profit on all put positions if the opportunity should arise, let me suggest a roundabout way of doing so: Short-sell eight (or a multiple thereof) November 58 puts for 0.72, good-till-canceled. It will take a hefty decline in the underlying shares to get this order filled, but if we’re successful, we will have legged on a vertical bear spread with the potential to produce a gain of as much as $400 with no possibility of a loss. _______ UPDATE (September 6, 12:48 p.m. EDT): With higher targets outstanding on this vehicle and the E-Mini S&Ps, I am going to recommend closing out the puts on a current bid of 0.51. The trading loss on eight puts would be $168.
