Tag: writing options

Selling Options Guide

Many investors have never even heard of stock options selling. For most people options trading is synonymous with risk and potential big profits or losses, using leverage by buying options. However, a lot of savvy investors use strategies involving selling options, also known as options writing, to hedge existing positions against the possibility that the stocks that they already own, or are short, will move against them.

Now hedging with options is nowhere near as exciting as leveraging with options and doubling or tripling your money quickly. Perhaps this is the reason you don’t get the details of options selling explained as frequently in books or on websites on stock options basics. It certainly is a lot more Continue reading Selling Options Guide

Options Trading Explained-Writing Options


This is the second article of our options trading explained series, in which I will attempt to help you learn options trading strategies as opposed to restricting myself to a generic explanation of stock options. In the earlier post I explained stock options trading in terms of simply going long, or buying, puts and calls as the simplest but most risky of stock options strategies. In this article I’d like to talk about selling or writing options as it opens up a range of possibilities for an investor to improve the overall performance of his portfolio.

When you move beyond thinking of options only as leveraged, risky investment vehicles you begin to understand them as savvy investors and professional traders do, ripe with opportunities for conservative option strategies. There are many ways to use them besides either making multiples of the premium you pay or losing most or all of that premium. I’ll cover options trading examples like writing puts and calls, which affords you hedging options (as it were) that can help you protect existing gains in open stock positions; you could sell options to create an ongoing income from your portfolio without having to sell stock at all; you can even offset losses in stock positions you are not yet prepared to close out, by writing contracts against those long or short positions. All these trading strategies involve simple options selling, and these are just a small fraction of the ways that you can use these incredibly versatile investment tools, once you get stock options explained to you.

Writing Options As A Simple Hedge

Let’s say that you have a nice profit in a stock that you would prefer not to sell yet. Maybe it’s had a run-up recently, and while you are still bullish on the company, your practical side tells you that the stock might very well be due for a pullback.

In addition to the optimism reflected in the stock price, it seems like the options associated with the stock have relatively pricey premiums, with even the out-of-the-money options costing more to buy than they normally might.


For an investor contemplating buying options, this is a risky situation. If you bought, or went long calls here, not only would the upward stock move have to continue, the volatility in the stock has to stay relatively high, or you will see time value decay eat away at the value of your long calls. Let me be clear: Continue reading Options Trading Explained-Writing Options

Hedging With Options


If you have been getting stock options explained to you via this stock options guide, it should be pretty clear by now there are many ways to use options that do not involve increased risk, that in fact serve to reduce overall risk in our portfolio. In a nutshell writing calls and puts usually gives us this ability. In the largest sense, writing options is about hedging, taking the safer side of a transaction in which the person on the other side of the trade is achieving leverage.

As leverage (such as one can achieve by buying calls and puts) is all about making huge gains on a usually smallish amount of money, hedging (e.g. with options) is about achieving rather small percentage gains on (usually) existing positions that are often quite large. If my aim is to explain stock options basics then I must cover both sides of options transactions- the buy (long) side and the sell (short) side.

Hedging can be a better strategy than simply holding a position and being fully exposed to a possible price downturn. Farmers use the commodity markets to ensure that they get a certain price for at least a portion of their crop, guarding against possible lower prices for a not-yet-harvested crop.

We can do this with stock options by selling someone a right to purchase something we own at a higher price, with the stipulation being that if the market never takes the price that high, by a certain date, that we keep the money that we got for selling that right in the first place.


With stock options you can create an income by selling calls with a strike price higher than the current price of the stock, against shares that are already in your portfolio. If you’re not ready to sell your stock in a given company at its current price, but would be happy to sell it at a higher level, simply write a call for each 100 shares of stock you own, with a strike price at which you would be satisfied to sell. In this way, if your shares continued to rise and the price is higher than the strike at expiration, your call will be exercised and you will deliver the shares at the strike price. If your shares are not priced above the strike price at expiration, the calls that you have written will expire worthless and you will simply keep the premium amount that you received for writing them (as well as your shares, of course). Many, many savvy investors with large portfolios make nice rates of return in this way, against stock that they are still bullish on, but could be persuaded to sell at higher levels. The downside of this strategy is that as you are obligated to sell at the strike price, assuming the call is in the money at expiration, you would miss out on any further rise in the price of the stock beyond the strike price.

The concept is exactly the same with puts incidentally, except reversed: for stock that you are short and still bearish on, but interested in hedging, you could write a put contract for every 100 shares that you are short and would like to include in the position, puts with a strike price at which you’d be satisfied in covering your short shares. If at expiration the stock is above the strike price the puts will expire worthless and you will keep the premium, and if this stock price is below the strike price, you’ll simply be forced to cover the applicable shares at the strike price.

Options Trading Strategies-Two Basic Ways To Play


If you’re trying to understand option trading strategies, and terms like strike price, expiration date, time decay, and covered and uncovered calls and puts, there’s a basic understanding that you should have, an overview of stock options basics in terms of two diametrically opposed strategies, that will help you understand both buying options and selling options (aka writing options). As the scope of this site has expanded, I’ve seen that the best way for new investors to have stock options explained to them is from the perspective of option trading strategies rather than simply theoretical articles about options basics.

If you’re familiar with options only as a trading vehicle that some investors use to attempt to make huge gains very quickly, you probably have wondered what terms like “writing calls” and “naked puts” are all about. The fact is that the risky buy-side trades with which new investors are most familiar is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the range of ways one can use stock options to maximize the performance of their overall portfolio.

Every options transaction has a seller on the other side of the transaction from the option buyer. This makes intuitive sense, but maybe you have assumed that the option seller is an options exchange or even some large broker. This is incorrect. The fact is that anyone can sell puts and calls just as they can buy them (pending approval from your broker, who will want you to attest that you understand options well enough to approve you for trading them in the first place).

But why would I sell options, rather than buying them? The difference lies in the motivation underlying both sides of the trade. I’ll explain call options here.

Whereas the buyer of the right to buy 100 shares of stock at a given price by a given date in the future is looking for a method to leverage a relatively small amount of money for the possibility of a large percentage gain, the seller of that right is most often looking for a way to protect long stock positions that he already has in his portfolio. There is an exception to this, in the form of very risky sell-side option trading strategies known as uncovered or “naked” call or put selling, but I’ll save that stock options explanation for the end of this article to avoid confusion.


Essentially the option seller is selling the right to purchase shares that he owns at a “strike price” that he would be happy receiving for his shares, should they reach that price. Normally the seller will pick a strike price higher than where the stock is currently trading. In return, the option contract seller or writer receives a premium amount from the option buyer.

For example, if I own 1000 shares of IBM and the stock is at 140, I can sell ten option contracts of IBM 160 calls, and I will receive an amount of money from the buyer or buyers of these 10 contracts. How much money depends on how far away the expiration date is, the volatility of the stock and other factors. Should IBM be trading over 160 by the expiration date, my stock will be called away from me i.e. I will be obligated to deliver it to the buyers of the options in return for the premium that they paid me. Note that I am still happy because I experienced appreciation between the 140 level and 160, plus the premium payment, although if IBM rises to say, $200 per share before expiration I will most likely regret selling calls against my shares in the first place!

If IBM falls or at least stays below 160 strike price between the day I initiate the trade and the expiration date, then the options will expire “out of the money”, worthless. That means that I no longer have the possibility of having to deliver my shares; the transaction is concluded at the expiration date. If I’m the option seller I keep one hundred percent of the premium amount, minus commissions, and unfortunately the option buyer loses whatever he paid to enter the transaction. Regardless of where the stock price is at expiration in this situation, my cost basis for my shares has been lowered by the amount of premium that I received.

In this example the call buyer is bullish (i.e. optimistic) on the stock and the call seller is bearish, or at least not overly bullish (after all he’s not bearish enough to sell his shares). It might have occurred to you that just as a put buyer is bearish on a stock that the put seller must be bullish (or at least not excessively bearish). This is an accurate assumption. This implies that ultimately one can’t think of either buying or selling options as bullish or bearish trades, as you could be a call buyer or put seller if you were bullish-to-neutral, and a put buyer or a call seller if you were bearish-to-neutral.

Options selling versus buying is more properly thought of in terms a risk/reward profile that a person wants to assume when he makes a trade. The buyer of the put or call is prepared to lose much or all of the premium he pays if the trade goes against him in return for the possibility of relatively large gains very quickly. The seller of a put or call is interested in making a relatively small profit on an open position where he is either long or short the stock, often with the only potential downside being the opportunity cost of having his stock or short position terminated at expiration if the option is in-the-money. Either way, the option buyer buys risk; the option seller is hedging with an eye on security and a smallish gain.

Well, as with many things, good way to explain option trading strategies is in terms of a dichotomy. Reality has exceptions, and options trading also has an interesting exception to the buy risk/sell to hedge opposing strategies.

I promised to explain one way in which option selling is very risky; this option trading strategy is actually much riskier than buying options. Selling covered calls means that you own the stock against which you write the calls. Selling “naked” calls means that you do not own the underlying stock if you are selling calls, and if you are selling “naked” puts, that you are not short the underlying security.

Wait a minute. How can anything be riskier than the possibility of losing your entire premium amount when you buy a put or a call? Here’s how naked option selling works on the call side (fasten your seatbelt!):

In our initial example of selling IBM 160 calls against shares that we own when IBM is trading at 140, the premium we received functioned as a hedge against a possible downward move in the stock. Believe it or not is perfectly legal to take the premium from the call buyer without owning any shares of the underlying stock. Should the stock close at expiration below 160, the call seller keeps his premium without having to have taken any further position, i.e. lay out any money for the shares of stock, as the seller of a covered call does. Assuming that the writer of a naked call holds his position until options expiration, you can say that he has an infinite return (minus commissions of course!). Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? And so what happens in the event that the stock is trading above the calls’ strike price at expiration?

The naked option seller is required to deliver 100 shares of stock per contract that he has sold. The premium he has received is miniscule compared to the amount of money he needs to pay for a stock position that he will establish at the strike price. In our example above, the naked seller needs $160,000 to buy 1000 shares of IBM at 160 to fill his obligations. You don’t need to do much more than read that sentence again to understand the amount of risk a naked options seller is assuming.

Now in practice, online brokers-in addition to furnishing you with stock option software-require you to maintain equity in your account to cover obligations that you have in delivering stock that you might be obliged to deliver. Still, the possible downside from this trade is such that even though one does not have to purchase shares, you must be psychologically and financially prepared to do so. Needless to say, writing naked puts or calls should only be attempted if you are an experienced options trader, and it is one of those options trading strategies in which most investors will never participate.

My hope is that you have found a fairly comprehensive overview of the two basic strategies for options trading explained here. Please let me know if you would like further elaboration in the comments.

Why Options Selling Increases Safety


If you are a new investor looking to diversify your portfolio for the sake of safety, chances are you haven’t really taken a look at stock options for a couple of reasons. First, you might be a little intimidated by the complexity of options. Secondly, you probably associate options with a high level of risk, and this gives you little incentive to scale a learning curve as you’re interested in protecting your money in these uncertain times.

The thing is that buying stock options is only one option trading strategy you can use. Instead of buying an option, which is the right to purchase 100 shares of the stock at a given price point by a certain date in the future, you can take the other side of the trade and sell an option contract that covers shares that you already own. Options selling is usually overlooked by new investors, and this is a mistake.

Here’s what you need to know: options selling means is that the option buyer pays you a small amount of money-known as the premium-for the right to purchase your shares at a given ‘strike’ price, usually a higher price than where the stock is currently trading. If the stock reaches that price before the expiration date the option buyer has the right to purchase your shares at the agreed-to price. Now if the stock continues up beyond the strike price before expiration, you have still benefited by the move in the stock between where it was when you sold the option contract and the price at which the option buyer bought the right to purchase the shares from you. You also, as the option seller, get to keep the option premium that the buyer paid you.


This doesn’t sound very risky does it? The answer is that it is not risky. There are, however, two potential downsides to this scenario if you are selling options. One is that you do not participate in any upward move in the stock above the strike price, at which you sold the right to purchase your shares. For example if you sold the option buyer the right to buy your shares at $100 per share when the stock was trading at $90 per share, if the stock is trading at $120 per share by expiration you must sell your shares at $100 (but you have still profited from the move between $90 and $100).

The other potential downside for you as the seller of the option is that the stock price may fall. Between now and the expiration date the stock may very well be trading lower than where it was priced when you sold the option. But in this case you’re still better off than if you had simply held onto your shares rather than selling the option, as again, remember that with options selling you get to keep the premium amount that the buyer paid you, and you get to keep your shares as the right to buy them at the now far-off strike price is worthless. You have a paper loss on the shares that you own, but your cost basis for the shares is slightly lower due to the premium amount paid by the buyer, that you get to keep.

I hope I’ve shown that there is more to options trading than just taking a gamble. The fact is that many savvy investors use options selling to create an income from their existing portfolio by selling, aka writing options against shares that they already own. As you get stock options explained to you further be sure and paper trade them for a while before actually committing any real money. The options market moves very quickly and the relationship between option premium prices than that of the underlying stock is not always clear cut.