rft,
I ran a RWASAS on a collar vs a spread for a $50 stock and a 50% drop in price, gap down, no chance for adjustment, and a close down of the trade.
There are several ways of using equivalency.
I decided to use a $100 net return and front month options as the common elements.
The results are as follows:
Collar trade size $5000, ($2500 margin)
Time in trade, 1 month
Net $100 (Short call-Long put)
Max Risk $500 (45 strike put) (10% stock, or 20% of margin)
Trade Loss at 50% drop in stock, $400 ($500-100)
Trade activity, buy stock, sell call, buy put, put stock to put buyer
Spread trade size $500 margin
Time in trade, 1 month
Net $100 (Short put-Long put, 5-pt spread)
Max Risk $500 (100% of margin)
Trade loss at 50% drop in stock, $400 ($500-100)
Trade activity, sell spread
What stands out for me is the smaller trade size for the spread and the trade activity is one element vs four with the collar.
I understand the fact of 100% max loss of the spread, but that is factored in for me with the smaller up front trade size, so I could have 4 more spread positions on other stocks, considering margin.
I dont buy stocks or do spreads on stocks just because of the risk of a major drop in price. I do spreads on ETFs. As has been said before by others, you have to avoid the max risk.