You mean the guy has been profitably writing naked options for 10 years and comes here asking us if it is OK??? Legit for sure....
Is there a difference between writing naked option vs cash (margin) covered? From my experience, to write any option, there must be enough margin to cover position if assigned.
he said that he wrote on indexes for a long time,. the market has been going up for nine years with barely a retracement. his record is quite possible. then to top it off maybe he had a dream/inkling/promonition that the good times are coming to the end and decided to post on ET?
Apparently, he should have taught Karen "The Super Trader" a thing or two. Just goes to show that doing stuff on your own (aka trading in a cave) is the best teacher of right and wrong...and sometimes.
[ don't you people know the rules when you trade? google margin requirements out of the money options to get up to date margin requirements. then check if your broker has higher requirements.
You might want to check out the 3rd quarters of 2011 and 2015. Anyone writing naked index puts would have had such a wonderful experience that they didn't need to ask questions like the OP did. And when you have a 10 years tested working strategy if I tell you it is dangerous would you change it? So simply, there is no point to this thread...
they are there to protect themselves, some firms are not interested in traders. their goal is to have as much assets in-house as possible and then to make money off idle cash balances, stock loan fees etc.
unhedged you are guaranteed on individual stocks to blow up on short term naked options. this is true and is a big if you are using the maximum margin available on your account.