Quote from hankster:
You're naked after Dec expiration.
That's correct and I will be out of the trade by Dec 2011 expiration of Dec 17th, the red line on the graph. I am covered until Dec expiration which is all I care about.
It's a bear-delta term-structure trade (short "switch" (back month) and vola)) and I would not want to be short a naked SPX put (synthetically) in March.
Neither would I.
Your hedge has less than 5 weeks remaining. You need a rally into Dec and then a drop, unfortunately, the haircut will more than double and it offers you no opportunity to roll out of Dec either through time or price. Your haircut more than doubles after Dec rolls of as well.
Win, lose or draw, my termination is Dec 17th or sooner.
Are you comfortable holding the Mar naked call at a 75-credit? IOW, will the Mar call be trading +/- 0.75 on Dec 16 (in your estimation)?
I have no idea what will happen, but I am covered until Dec. expiration, my max loss is defined, my margin is reasonable and I have potential for unlimited upside.
For example, IRAN launches Nukes at Israel and the market dumps 1,000 points. This trade would increase almost 300%.
Most likely, there will be some theta decay by Dec expiration.
Lets say, its .25, then my return after closing the spread would be
(75-25) / 216 = 23.2%. I am happy to take that.
Hope this helps.