When is the best time to buy a call option

Discussion in 'Options' started by lasner, Apr 10, 2008.

  1. What do you advertise on ET ?
     
    #11     Apr 10, 2008
  2. The easy way is to download a free P/L tool such as <a href="http://www.samoasky.com/">www.samoasky.com/</a> and play with it a bit.

    To really understand it better here is some info I posted in another thread:
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    To really understand what will happen to an option you really need to understand all of the Greeks (of which Delta and Theta are the two most important):

    Delta: This is the amount the options price will move as the underlying price moves UP. The value will always be a number between 1 and -1. A positive value means the option will move up as the underlying moves up and a negative number means the option will go down as the underlying moves up.

    Theta: Is the measure of time decay. This is the amount the option will lose per day as the option gets closer to expiration. Things that affect Theta include: Time to expiration and how far in or out of the money the option is.

    Gamma: Is basically the rate of acceleration in Delta. In other words it measures how much the Delta of an option will increase or decrease based on a $1 move in the underlying.

    Vega: Is the amount the options price will change in theory as the implied volatility changes. The change from Vega only usually applies to the time value of the option which in combination with Theta controls the time value of the option.

    Ro: This little guy isn't too important but I will mention it for the sake of completeness. Ro is a measure of how much the options value will change based on a 1% change in interest rates.
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    How can this all be used? In the other thread someone provided the following example:

    My response was:
    This does not even take into account Vega or what the volatility is doing.
     
    #12     Apr 10, 2008
  3. #13     Apr 10, 2008
  4. Maverick's. I think you multiplied Theta by the change in price and then subtracted that from the option price.

    Theta doesn't move like that. The time decay from theta would only be .05
     
    #14     Apr 10, 2008
  5. Yes it was late and I didn't double check myself. Here are the correct numbers:

     
    #15     Apr 11, 2008
  6. No it’s a ridiculous request! Anyone seriously responding here is taken for a ride by Mr. “ET Sponsor”! [​IMG]
     
    #16     Apr 11, 2008