Quote from Put_Master:
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Here is another question for Dan. Suppose instead of the stock spreads above being closed and/or bought, because they closed a few pennies below their upper strike on expiration day,.... they instead closed a few pennies below their lower strike?
We have already established buying them is out of the question, as it would cost you ONE MILLION DOLLARS, and your account is only worth $100,000.
So my new question for Danshirley is, what is the value of your $100,000 account, if your spreads all closed just a few pennies below your lower strike on expiration day?
Once again, I can predict with 100% certainty Dan will NEVER answer this question either. Instead he will answer questions I'm not asking, or instead ask me a question, or instead talk about other issues, or instead talk about other alternatives, and other what if's.... or disappear.
But he will NEVER answer the very simply and basic question I'm asking.
As with my ist question for Dan, I will now answer the 2nd question for him as well:
If those 5 spreads I discussed closed just a few pennies below your lower strikes, your $100,000 account would be wiped out. Bankrupt. Empty.
Dan thinks that because he is not being charged margin interest, that he is not using any leverage.
And yet, I clearly demonstrated his $100,000 account would need ONE MILLION DOLLARS, if he wanted to buy those stocks, if they were put to him.
And his $100,000 account would be worth nothing, (wiped out), if he let the stocks trade just a few pennies below his lower strike.
On the other hand, if he closed them all while the stocks traded right in the middle of his 2 strikes, his loss would still be massive.
Dan thinks by going deep OTM, he doesn't have to worry about his stocks trading between or below his strikes.
What he fails to realize is, because of the 2 extreme choices he faces, of either coming up with ONE MILLION DOLLARS, or being wiped out,..... he can not risk letting his stocks come even close to his upper strikes.
He must close them down long before they even get close to the upper strike.
Hence, that deep OTM safety cushion he thinks he has, does not actually exist. Only in THEORY WORLD.
In REALITY WORLD, if the stock is trading at $56, and his upper strike is $45, he'd better close it long before it hits $45.
Waiting until it tests $45, is waaaaay too risky.
It will be very expensive to close it once it dips below $45.
And the deeper it drops the more expensive it becomes.
Keep waiting and "hoping", and you risk your account being wiped out.
WHY? Because as my earlier example showed, his $100,000 account can't afford to buy the MILLION DOLLARS worth of stocks. Thus you must close the trades early for a massive loss.