Markets remained a mess until well after the FED minutes were released and the markets continued the weak sentiment felt in the morning session. SPY ended up around $158.20 to close out, offering up yet another obstacle for the bulls. Action today though felt like forced & very controlled selling. The Financial sector bore the brunt of the selling pressure today while the Tech/Internet names were able to hold up. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), for example, sold off a solid 10 points from the opening price but closed right in the middle and didn’t participate in the late day sell-off. This could be a way for the smart money to keep people convinced on the market going to all time highs while they slowly pull the rug out underneath everyone. Or it’s just simply another dip buy opportunity. Either way, a trader must stay unbiased so he/she can capitalize on both scenarios.

This strategy is really predicated on understanding sentiment and tape as well as timing alongside the broad indexes. The stock could have easily took off through $450 in which case I would have been up shitscreek shorting this option. However, the tape really showed me that buyers just didn’t have the stones to get this thing moving again to the upside. That opened the door up to an opportunity capitalizing on the high premiums that were driven by the recent rally.