Which Greek will win?

Discussion in 'Options' started by Eliot Hosewater, Aug 16, 2006.

  1. I'm looking to roll my OIH Aug 135 short calls to Sep, it's one leg of a calendar spread.

    OIH is up almost 2% to just below 140.

    Here are the Greeks given by TOS:

    Aug: delta: 0.86 gamma: 0.05 theta: [0.16-0.20]
    Sep: delta: 0.66 gamma: 0.03 theta: 0.10

    The Aug is up 1.90 while the Sep is only up 1.50 (i.e. higher delta and gamma). I'm thinking to wait a day or so to let the higher Aug theta do its work.

    Any other suggestions?

    Edit: changed puts to calls above.
     
  2. I'd like to make some suggestions but don't have enough information. Is your overall position profitable? What were your exit criteria before you entered the trade? What's your outlook?
    daddy's boy
     
  3. jj90

    jj90

    Need to give a lot more info....
     
  4. Thanks for your interest.

    I bought the Aug/Oct OIH 135 call calendar for a debit of 5.10.

    Edit: OIH closed at 138.50 (+1.60).

    According to TOS I could close it now for 6.75, but since I wanted to use it as a learning experience on rolling to a new month I don't want to close just yet. (I only bought two of them.) I can roll the short side for 3.80 (TOS says). Unless things really go wild next month I should be able to close out for more than 1.30 (5.10 - 3.80). My outlook is that OIH will stay above 135 nextr month.

    OIH was realtively volatile today, which probably accounts for the Aug to swing around more than the Sep. They closed +1.00 and +.50 respectively. I'm thinking if tomorrow is more quiet then theta will work more on the Aug and maybe I can get $4 or more for the roll. I could have done the roll yesterday for about $4.
     
  5. Looks like a very good trade from the point of view of timing - the underlying is right at your short strike. You can close out the whole cal for about 70% of max profit now or you can roll your short to sept for a credit of $4.3, reducing your risk to $0.8. Be aware though that iv is pretty high. Should it come down (and your outlook is for stock to stay stable) your profits will go down with it.
    Best
    daddy's boy
     
  6. Thanks, like I say it's mainly a learning experience (but now I wish I had a lot more than two of them). Should I wait for market close to wring the last bit of value out of the Aug short, or just pull the trigger some time today?

    BTW, I have the same trade going on in both my Fidelity and TOS accounts. I rolled the Fido one yesterday for 3.95, but then I just put each trade in at the market. TOS trading platform is so much better.
     
  7. Well, the stock has been moving away from the 135 strike, so I should have done it earlier today.
     
  8. Pleased to hear that since I just opened an account with TOS.
    daddy's boy
     
  9. I guess vega won, since OIH closed almost at the next strike up.

    And I was hoping to make a joke about Lost Vegas.