If you already own the stock, you use the options to achieve a collar. If one is thinking about doing a collar from scratch, the synthetic vertical is the better choice. I don't get the point of it being more expensive with options than stocks. To do what? As for Tsuie, I've seen some of their site. When someone telks you how good you can do by buying the stock and the puts and legging into the short calls at a later time/date, my reception shuts down.