You can express any opinion about the market with options.
If you think that the Dow is oversold now but will fall by spring, you can sell a put on the Dow that expires in February and buy a put that expires in April or May. That way, you have financed your spring put purchase with the sale of the Feb option.
If you think that we are entering a quiet phase of the market, you can sell a put and sell half the stock that the put is on. That way, you will earn the difference between the implied volatility and the actual price movement.
Why sell half the stock?
You can do the same by selling calls and buying half the amount of stock that it is on. That is a slightly more bullish trade than the one above.
If you want to do merger arbitrage, you can buy Wyeth calls and sell Pfizer puts. Of course, you can do the same with the underlying stock, but it is cheaper to do it with options.
In fact, you can think of stock as an option with no expiration.
So express yourself.
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