Best strategies for selling options

Selling Call Options: Popular Strategies & Alternatives

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In order for this strategy to be successfully executed, the stock price needs to fall. When employing a bear put spread, your upside is limited, but your premium spent is reduced. If outright puts are expensive, one way to offset the high premium is by selling lower strike puts against them. This is how a bear put spread is constructed.

A protective collar strategy is performed by purchasing an out-of-the-money put option and simultaneously writing an out-of-the-money call option. The underlying asset and the expiration date must be the same. This strategy is often used by investors after a long position in a stock has experienced substantial gains. This allows investors to have downside protection as the long put helps lock in the potential sale price. However, the trade-off is that they may be obligated to sell shares at a higher price, thereby forgoing the possibility for further profits.

This is a neutral trade set-up, which means that the investor is protected in the event of a falling stock.

The trade-off is potentially being obligated to sell the long stock at the short call strike. However, the investor will likely be happy to do this because they have already experienced gains in the underlying shares. A long straddle options strategy occurs when an investor simultaneously purchases a call and put option on the same underlying asset with the same strike price and expiration date. An investor will often use this strategy when they believe the price of the underlying asset will move significantly out of a specific range, but they are unsure of which direction the move will take.

Theoretically, this strategy allows the investor to have the opportunity for unlimited gains. At the same time, the maximum loss this investor can experience is limited to the cost of both options contracts combined.

This strategy becomes profitable when the stock makes a large move in one direction or the other. In a long strangle options strategy, the investor purchases an out-of-the-money call option and an out-of-the-money put option simultaneously on the same underlying asset with the same expiration date. An investor who uses this strategy believes the underlying asset's price will experience a very large movement but is unsure of which direction the move will take.

For example, this strategy could be a wager on news from an earnings release for a company or an event related to a Food and Drug Administration FDA approval for a pharmaceutical stock. Losses are limited to the costs—the premium spent—for both options. Strangles will almost always be less expensive than straddles because the options purchased are out-of-the-money options. This strategy becomes profitable when the stock makes a very large move in one direction or the other.

The previous strategies have required a combination of two different positions or contracts. In a long butterfly spread using call options, an investor will combine both a bull spread strategy and a bear spread strategy. They will also use three different strike prices.

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All options are for the same underlying asset and expiration date. For example, a long butterfly spread can be constructed by purchasing one in-the-money call option at a lower strike price, while also selling two at-the-money call options and buying one out-of-the-money call option.

A balanced butterfly spread will have the same wing widths. An investor would enter into a long butterfly call spread when they think the stock will not move much before expiration. The maximum loss occurs when the stock settles at the lower strike or below or if the stock settles at or above the higher strike call. This strategy has both limited upside and limited downside. In the iron condor strategy, the investor simultaneously holds a bull put spread and a bear call spread.

The iron condor is constructed by selling one out-of-the-money put and buying one out-of-the-money put of a lower strike—a bull put spread—and selling one out-of-the-money call and buying one out-of-the-money call of a higher strike—a bear call spread. All options have the same expiration date and are on the same underlying asset. Typically, the put and call sides have the same spread width. This trading strategy earns a net premium on the structure and is designed to take advantage of a stock experiencing low volatility. Many traders use this strategy for its perceived high probability of earning a small amount of premium.

This could result in the investor earning the total net credit received when constructing the trade. The further away the stock moves through the short strikes—lower for the put and higher for the call—the greater the loss up to the maximum loss.

How to Sell a Put - Key Terminology

Maximum loss is usually significantly higher than the maximum gain. This intuitively makes sense, given that there is a higher probability of the structure finishing with a small gain. In the iron butterfly strategy, an investor will sell an at-the-money put and buy an out-of-the-money put. At the same time, they will also sell an at-the-money call and buy an out-of-the-money call. Although this strategy is similar to a butterfly spread , it uses both calls and puts as opposed to one or the other. It is common to have the same width for both spreads. The long, out-of-the-money call protects against unlimited downside.

The long, out-of-the-money put protects against downside from the short put strike to zero. Profit and loss are both limited within a specific range, depending on the strike prices of the options used. Investors like this strategy for the income it generates and the higher probability of a small gain with a non-volatile stock. The maximum gain is the total net premium received. Maximum loss occurs when the stock moves above the long call strike or below the long put strike.

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Your Practice. Popular Courses. It is necessary to assess how low the stock price can go and the time frame in which the decline will happen in order to select the optimum trading strategy.

Buying Options vs Selling Options

Selling a Bearish option is also another type of strategy that gives the trader a "credit". This does require a margin account. The most bearish of options trading strategies is the simple put buying or selling strategy utilized by most options traders. The market can make steep downward moves. Moderately bearish options traders usually set a target price for the expected decline and utilize bear spreads to reduce cost. This strategy has limited profit potential, but significantly reduces risk when done correctly.

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The bear call spread and the bear put spread are common examples of moderately bearish strategies. Mildly bearish trading strategies are options strategies that make money as long as the underlying asset does not rise to the strike price by the options expiration date.

3 Safe Option Strategies better than stock buying

However, you can add more options to the current position and move to a more advanced position that relies on Time Decay "Theta". These strategies may provide a small upside protection as well. In general, bearish strategies yield profit with less risk of loss. Neutral strategies in options trading are employed when the options trader does not know whether the underlying asset's price will rise or fall. Also known as non-directional strategies, they are so named because the potential to profit does not depend on whether the underlying price will increase or decrease.

Rather, the correct neutral strategy to employ depends on the expected volatility of the underlying stock price. Neutral trading strategies that are bullish on volatility profit when the underlying stock price experiences big moves upwards or downwards.

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