Is there a way using some kind of ratio, or combination of long stock, short calls, long puts that you could create the equivalent of a short position at current PPS levels on GM?? What I would like to do is create a spread where this is one side and the other side is going long medium term SSF contracts which are significantly cheaper than the short position. There is a huge margin right now of roughly .75 cents. Thanks.
Any discount or premium in the futures vs cost to carry the stock long or short is going to be priced into the options too. You wont be able to create a synthetic long or short via options which will be priced any differently
When you use options to create a synthetic long/short stock, you actually end up with a synthetic futures contract on a stock and not the stock. Generally, this point doesn't get stressed enough, so people don't even realize this when they talk about synthetic stock.