With the broad averages going nervously nowhere, VXX is on a roll. Stocks will have trouble marking time for much longer, however, if VXX pushes past the 19.06 peak (see inset) recorded on February 24. This occurred just ahead of a blowoff on March 1 that saw the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500 hit their respective all-time highs. We’ve been on the sidelines in VXX, positionless because it’s so dangerous to jump on this vehicle when it’s trending strongly. Even so, you should stay tuned to the home page and the chat room, since it may be possible to buy put options, even bloated ones, if we can do so when VXX is hitting a clear Hidden Pivot target. Just for practice, I’ll recommend bidding 0.60 for four April 21 19 puts, day order. That’s about where they should be trading if VXX spikes correspondingly to the 19.38 target shown. You can take 0.05 discretion on the order. ______ UPDATE (Apr 12, 7:48 p.m. ET): VXX spent the day screwing the pooch, so we did nothing on the order. It should be canceled for now, but keep in mind that we should be equally pleased if we wind up buying calls in this vehicle if it relapses to lows where the options would become bargains._______ UPDATE (Apr 16, 8:31 p.m.): If VXX pops above the red line it will put a 19.41 rally target in play that is presumably shortable. Accordingly, I’ll recommend bidding 0.65 for four Apr 21 19 puts, day order. The bid is based on a Hidden Pivot target for the option itself at 0.60.
