Stocks

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

Obviously you mean upside risk.
But I should have mentioned it before while the market was still open. Maybe you should have considered rolling those July puts into August. Because now you are going to have those July options decay for 3 days. It is a very short month expiration wise and you only have another 9 trading days for your puts. So if you have a chance maybe consider rolling them into August, even if you have to go down a strike to make it a little less expensive.

No, I meant unlimited downside risk. You don't limit your upside risk by buying options. You only limit your dowside risk. Let's say I would have shorted 1,000 Spyders. I would have unlimited downside risk. If the market went straight up, you could lose tens of thousands of dollars if you were short Spyders. I don't think it's going to happen but let's just say that the Dow went up to 14,000. If you were short 1,000 Spyders, you would lose over $40,000. If you buy 20 puts instead for $2.00, the market can go straight up and the most you lose is $4k. Yet you still have the big upside with the puts. If the Dow goes to 5,000, you would make around $40k with the puts.

The one big negative with buying the out-of-the-money puts is that you need a big move down. If you just get a small move down, you will lose money.

With regard to the July puts, they are obviously more of a gamble than the August puts. You don't have as much time but you pay less premium. I figured that if we are in a free-fall right now that I wouldn't need the extra time. If we get a bounce and the big drop doesn't start until August, I still have my December puts.