The setup
A bullish breakout on the MIDCPNIFTY chart, expressed the same way 06-08's BankNifty call was expressed for a bearish one — sell a naked option in the direction of the break. This time it's the mirror image: sell the put, not the call.
The trade
| Leg | Strike | Action | Premium | Lots | Units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short put | 14900 PE | Sell | 135.30 | 1 | 120 |
MIDCPNIFTY lot size is 120.
The math
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Credit | 135.30 × 120 = ₹16,236 |
| Breakeven | 14900 − 135.30 = 14764.70 |
| Max profit | ₹16,236 (expiry above 14900) |
| Max loss | Large, down to zero — not uncapped like a naked call, but still unbounded on any reasonable timeframe |
| Result | +₹1,235 (≈10.3 points of premium decayed, ~7.6% of credit) |
The index held above 14900, the put lost about ten points, I closed it, ₹1,235 booked.
The part that's becoming a pattern
This is now the fourth consecutive live trade in this discretionary breakout family without a written rule behind it: MIDCPNIFTY spread on 04-08 (loss), BankNifty naked call on 06-08 (win, tail untested), BankNifty put whipsaw on 07-08 (net flat, no re-entry rule), and now this. Three of the four made money. That win rate is exactly the wrong thing to take comfort in — three small wins on an undefined setup don't make the setup defined, they just mean the market hasn't punished the gap in my process yet.
Nothing new to add to the open thread from those posts: either this chart read becomes a testable rule in the breakout bot, or I stop taking it live. I keep writing that sentence and keep not doing either. That's worth noticing on its own — a small, clean win like this one is precisely the kind of trade that makes procrastinating on the fix feel harmless.
Sizing, at least, was sane
One lot. No hedge, because the credit-to-loss profile of a single short put close to spot doesn't carry the same asymmetric blow-up risk a short call does in a market that can gap up without a real ceiling — a put's downside is bounded by the index reaching zero, which isn't a practical constraint, but it's a different shape of risk than a naked call's. Even so, one lot kept today's exposure to a level where being wrong would have cost real money, not account-moving money. That discipline held. The process discipline — writing the rule down before the next one of these — still hasn't.
Disclaimer
This is a personal trading journal. It is a record of my own trades, my own money and my own mistakes — nothing more.
Nothing here is a trade recommendation, a tip, a call, or advice of any kind. I am not a registered adviser and I am not qualified to tell anyone what to do with their capital. The strikes, premiums, entries and exits above are what I did, not what you should do.
If you read this blog and place a trade because of it, that trade is yours. I accept no responsibility for anyone else's losses. Do your own research, size for your own risk, and understand that options can lose you more, faster, than you expect.