The Cost of Losses--Options or stop losses-- which are better?

It's a tradeoff between transaction costs and liquidity. The actual decision will depend on how liquid an instrument you're trading.

 

Check http://www.optionsweekly.com

They have how to articles and also trade ideas.

Sometimes you can sell in the money covered calls and that gives you enough profit to protect against a 10%

Even a 50% drop in the stock, see the VVUS article.

 

Don't you think options would be redundant if it were an existing optimal stop loss strategy ?

 

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Options and stops don't cover the same risks.
One can't cover gap risk with stops, and as far as markets won't be continuous, gaps will happen. That means if your trading timeframe is about seconds, minutes, hours..., you won't need options. But if your trading timeframe is about days, weeks...there is no better way than using options.

 

Why? Is the cost the same?

 

Gaps are quite rare during trading sessions.

 

Assume trading sessions and/or no gaps to make things simpler. The question is to compare costs of options vs. stop loss. Any answer other than there is no gap (which would be circular reasoning)?

 

Are you waiting for an answer like "well, you know it depends how low or high IV vs HV are and..." ? It's been said.

But now, 3 pages after, would you give your opinion?