The Beauty of Options - Portfolio Insurance at a Discount

Discussion in 'Options' started by Sweet Bobby, Jun 19, 2020.

  1. shh

    shh

    SweetBobby, if ES price moves up tomorrow, so that you cannot short the next cycle puts (at 50 strike points higher), for $3 or better, what will happen? Would you for example sell at 100 strike points above the long puts costing $1,018.20?

    Isn't it safer to put the entire diagonal at once? or the difference is usually negligible? Thanks for sharing
     
    #191     Jun 30, 2020
  2. Great question. At this point, I will not sell any additional puts until my replacement long’s get filled at $1.35. I have about five working orders to fill a number of longs. I really benefit from an upward or sideways market, while being fully protected if a crash occurs.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2020
    #192     Jun 30, 2020
    shh likes this.
  3. ironchef

    ironchef

    Question for you:

    Have you ever tried, analyzed or backtested zero cost portfolio insurance, i.e., let the short and long premium net to zero?

    I ran some analysis over the weekend using various strikes, ratios, expirations on historical SPY... o_O
     
    #193     Jun 30, 2020
  4. I have not. What did you find?
     
    #194     Jun 30, 2020
  5. taowave

    taowave

    Are you talking about zero cost collars?

     
    #195     Jun 30, 2020
  6. destriero

    destriero

    "zero cost collarrrr"

    Umm, let me guess... you have to short 30D calls and buy 20D puts.

    It's a synthetic bull vertical. No shit, rly. So WTF bother with shares?
     
    #196     Jun 30, 2020
    Sweet Bobby likes this.
  7. ironchef

    ironchef

    Not a collar. Ratio diagonal spread.
     
    #197     Jul 1, 2020
  8. destriero

    destriero

    OK, so a short backspread. Fundamentally (for you) no difference as you're not edging the swap.

    There is (almost) NO edge in structuring (unless you're me).
     
    #198     Jul 1, 2020
  9. taowave

    taowave

    LOL...You are unusually amusing today...



     
    #199     Jul 1, 2020
    destriero likes this.
  10. ironchef

    ironchef

    He partially paid for his long puts with shorter duration puts. What if either he sells more puts to balance out the cost of the longs or goes lower long put strike so that the costs net out to zero?

    Like a free lunch. :D
     
    #200     Jul 1, 2020