Owning a stock both as long as well as short

Constructive sale issues and separating them consciously into two accounts could elevate them from a civil issue to a higher level infraction.
 
M.W. said:
Nonsense. If you held a longer term view of the stock declining you would reduce both your short call and long stock exposure. If your view was short term you would just open new short calls or long puts and subsequently reduce OI in them.
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You miss this important point: the first trade might be a long term investment, and the new trade shall be just a short term investment.
The current situation is unsatisfactory b/c it negatively impacts an already existing position. A new trade should always be possible w/o touching (ie. closing) any previously opened position.
 
destriero said:
He wasn't doing that, dude. He's long and short a call. Can you stay on point? Let us know when the broker allows it.

You can short the synthetic in one tenor and go long in another tenor (roll arbitrage/calendar box) but yeah, nobody asked.
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This will require a few beeps to carry. You can trade shares against the offending leg (conversion effected) and let the intended D1 position ride into the new signal.

Long one 4000/4100 box -> short signal triggered -> buy 100 spot -> conversion at 4100 -> dissection leaves you short D1 in the 4000-strike synthetic (one lot).

You can do this today, now, in one account. Now, why?!
 
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destriero said:
He wasn't doing that, dude. He's long and short a call. Can you stay on point? Let us know when the broker allows it.

You can short the synthetic in one tenor and go long in another tenor (roll arbitrage/calendar box) but yeah, nobody asked.
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Sorry, Dave. You're on point and it's a good idea other than carry.
 
M.W. said:
You keep on asking the same thing again and again. The same answer remains. It makes absolutely zero sense to hold a long and short position in the same stock at the same time. Absolutely no benefit. Which part is STILL unclear?
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The only thing that I can think of why the OP would want to hold both a long and short position simultaneously in the same instrument is to be delta-neutral with perfect hedge and theta-free, i.e. not subject to any erosion of value over time. But the problem with that is since they both have delta of 1, the profitability on one side is exactly offset by the loss on the other side so the profitability from this arrangement is very low even if you hold the long and short positions in different quantities. Perfect hedge also results in zero profit.
 
MsDawn, you're taking the edge loss on a two lot to achieve neutrality in what is zero position. You two need to open a change bank in the Galapagos with earth_imperium.

You cannot effect the trade. The regulator is saving you from self-harm.
 
DaveV said:
Other than trying to dodge taxes as @RobertMorse stated, I can see one other purpose for simultaneously holding a stock both long and short. If a stock has very few shares available to short, and you expect a major announcement, after market close, that could drastically move the stock price (such as earnings or an FDA drug approval/rejection), it could be beneficial to have shares long that could be sold instead of trying to borrow shares to short. This is a way to play the announcement with the only risk being trading commissions if there is no price movement.
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Yes but you would've incurred huge losses on the long position and no sustained profit from the short because there is no independent short position; it's just unloading some long, unless I am missing something here?
 
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