Options vs Futures

lindq · Feb 19, 2015

gvphubli said:
I said so, so that one can clarify what instruments to use and when.

xandman and others - Thank you, for your comments and suggestions.

This is not what you want to hear, but -- Buy the stock if you believe MSFT will be higher in a few months. And if you can't afford to buy the stock, then you shouldn't be in the market.

For many reasons, neither a Single Stock Future or an option on MSFT is a good instrument to play.

sonoma · Feb 19, 2015

xandman said:
Your firm may be extending 4:1 margin intraday but at EOD, you will be using 2:1.

You trade stocks. Stocks on margin is the way to go.

If you find your strategies extremely reliable and you do major size, you might use stock futures to goose your leverage.

Yup.

hfts_james · Feb 19, 2015

options - if you buy the call option, no loss if msft falls below the strike price. you pay the premium. no margin call. strike price - depends on how much you want to pay and expected profit after deducting the premium.

xandman · Feb 19, 2015

There will be a right product for the right strategy. KISS

Additional leverage will only be applicable if the risk/reward ratio allows it because of the risk of ruin.

lindq · Feb 20, 2015

hfts_james said:
options - if you buy the call option, no loss if msft falls below the strike price.

That's absolutely incorrect. Could not be farther from the truth. At expiration the OP can lose the premium he paid for the option. In other words, his entire investment.

newwurldmn · Feb 20, 2015

lindq said:
That's absolutely incorrect. Could not be farther from the truth. At expiration the OP can lose the premium he paid for the option. In other words, his entire investment.

it could be further from the truth if he said, "if you buy the call option, you are guaranteed to make money if msft falls below the strike price"

lindq · Feb 20, 2015

newwurldmn said:
it could be further from the truth if he said, "if you buy the call option, you are guaranteed to make money if msft falls below the strike price"

Okay, I'll give you a point for that. Your statement would have indeed been even further from the truth that his original. Although, from the standpoint of the OP's request for information, either statement would have been far enough from the truth to lose his entire investment.

Which, in thinking about it, isn't such a bad definition for buying calls in general. i.e. You don't need to be far from the truth to lose all your money.

xandman · Feb 20, 2015

That favorable payoff characteristic is priced into the option. Now, If his strat incorporates a way to identify overvaluation and undervaluation due to volatility/skew then he adds alpha. Another challenging domain of trading that can stand by itself.

Otherwise, it just causes more friction on returns via costs and complexity.

Most of us are better off buying an index fund levered with a home equity loan. But then the wife would force us to get a real job or do her errands.

lindq · Feb 20, 2015

xandman said:
Most of us are better off buying an index fund levered with a home equity loan.

Gosh, buying an index with home equity makes a lot of sense. Because as we all recall from 2006-2009, the stock market and the housing market never crash together.

Duh.

newwurldmn · Feb 20, 2015

lindq said:
Which, in thinking about it, isn't such a bad definition for buying calls in general. i.e. You don't need to be far from the truth to lose all your money.

No you do not.