with Erich Senft to produce the Support and Resistance. Newsletter, which helps
traders find timely entry and exits based on the time-tested concepts of.
An Advanced Option Trading Strategy by: Thomas Loge’, CTA
O
ption trading is a “zero sum game.” Whenever there is a winner there must be a loser, and whenever there is a loser there must be a winner. Someone is making a bad decision while someone else is making the right decision. This is the essence of option trading. So, what is the trader’s first priority in option trading? Making as many right choices as possible. We want to be right more frequently than we are wrong. How is this to be achieved? It begins with understanding the rules of the game!
Time Value An option can either be purchased or it can be sold. This becomes the trader’s first decision. If an option is purchased, a strike price is selected (the point of entry), and this becomes the option that is purchased. The price paid for the purchased option is called the premium, which establishes the value of the option.
Most options purchased are out-of-the-money, meaning that the premium paid is for an object without real value. In trading parlance, “There is no intrinsic (real) value to the option.” Yet the buyer paid a premium, so there must be some actual worth. There is value, and the value is time. Most purchasers of options buy time, which by its very nature is a depreciating asset. Time runs out! The value of an option declines as time passes. The further away from expiration an option is, the higher its value will be because of the time value. However, the closer an option is to expiry, the less valuable it will be since there is less time for prices to move and move dramatically. This relationship is known in options lingo as Theta. Below is a graphic representation of option time decay, or “Theta.” Option traders should remember that all options decay in value over time in one sense. However, short (sold) options benefit from this as the writer makes money with the passage
PitNews.com Magazine July 2007 Disclaimer: The risk of loss in trading futures, options, stocks, and forex can be substantial. See Page 5 for more information.
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Understanding “Money” Use the following table as a refresher for understanding option lingo related “In” and “Out-Of” the Money
Call
Theta (Option Time Decay)
of time, in exchange for the unlimited risk and limited reward potential of selling an option. Remember that the trader wants to make as many “right decisions” as possible. Buying a depreciating asset (time) is generally not a good way to be on the “right side” of the trading decision. Time is going to run out upon the option’s expiration, and if it does so before the market reaches the strike price purchased, the option becomes absolutely worthless. The option buyer loses the purchase value of the option plus the fees and commissions paid, while the person selling (granting) the option keeps the premium from the sale. For every option purchased there must be a seller to write (grant) the option. This is how someone is always making the “right” decision and someone else is always making a “bad” decision.
Put
In-The-Money
Futures > Strike Futures
