Quote from neophytenate:
Disagree. The interest rate / dividend components of option pricing are clear.
Synthetic option equivalents to the underlying are also equivalent (not equal) to futures of the underlying.
Sorry, I was too wage, let me be more specific what I meant: Pull-Call Party unarguably holds (I still would not call it carry) and it is reconciled through the following: The skewness in the distribution means that the stock price is more likely to end up below the strike than above (for ATM). However, the call has a higher potential payoff than the put, but lower probabilities of achieving it. Both effects cancel each other through risk-neutral pricing and therefore PC-Parity is not violated. With interest rates at zero (I come back to this in a second) the price of put and call would be identical. Given we have options at the money and no dividends (which is realistic for most options expiring within the next month (we talked about Nov and Dec options here), American early optionality has no value for both calls and puts (at least very low because we are currently atm and the prob of the put moving deep into the money is very low). So, dividends and American optionality does not play much of a role in this example. With rates<>zero the call is worth more.
