When P-C parity does not hold

Does it ever happen in the US?

Yes. Absolutely. I'd even go so far as to say, "Typical" of every major divot on the S&P over the last decade.

...should I simply stop playing in a market where standard logic does not hold?

"...Stop playing...?" That depends on what you do now, right? This all signals danger. Danger means risk. Along with risk *should*come* reward. Yep!

But as an option *seller*, I'm going to be VERY cautious -- I'm going to push out wings and shorten legs and be *really* picky about when I write. If I move (and I need to expect to!:confused:), I'm going to L.A.M.B. -- leave a man behind -- If I have 5 spreads on, I'll roll 4.5 of 'em, leaving a long behind. If vol is high enough, I'll look at calendars and diagonals. And finally, I'll take earlier/larger losses if it will reduce my (worst) exposures -- taking partial profits frees 100% of margin consumed, hey.

Not so much "stop playing" as playing with altogether different tactics.
 
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Why is that?

Generally early exercise on dividend paying stocks means that ITM calls trade at a minimum of parity with respect to the Spot Price ...

As a former MM you may have a 'formula' for put-call parity on American style options
... if so ... what does p-c-p look like for say

Stock price $100
Dividend $10 payable in 30 days
Expiry in 60 days
Strikes 60 / 80 / 100
 
I would calculate to cost of carrying on the conversion and the reversal for me.

I would alter my trading software by lowering interest to 0 and add weekly dividends to simulate neg interest until the P and C IVOL meet to see what the market is using.

I would then look to see if there is a place I make money vs the market.
 
Hello,

in my particular market (China) the P-C parity started breaking down during the past weeks.

In the beginning I could explain the small IV difference between call and put with the interest rates, but recently the divergence is becoming really wide. We are talking about calls at 14%IV and puts at 25%IV for the same strike.

On top of this, and especially for longer dated maturities, the ATM put IV is higher than the wings IV..

The only rational explanation I can think about is that 1)the market sentiment turned very bearish after the last tariff round and 2)it's very difficult to short stock, therefore nobody is able to arbitrage away the difference.

Any veteran here that went through similar scenarios? Or should I simply stop playing in a market where standard logic does not hold?

Can you post a screenshot of a sample options chain?
 
I would calculate to cost of carrying on the conversion and the reversal for me.

I would alter my trading software by lowering interest to 0 and add weekly dividends to simulate neg interest until the P and C IVOL meet to see what the market is using.

I would then look to see if there is a place I make money vs the market.

Robert

I think you have just described why put-call parity doesn't necessarily hold for early-exercise type options with dividends ... manually iterating vols until they match the market maybe the practical solution ... but it ain't a formula for put-call parity

Put-Call parity is usually defined by a formula that will reconcile put/call prices with respect to Spot / Strike / Carry ... something like Call = Spot + Put - presentValue Stike

Cheers
James
 
Robert

I think you have just described why put-call parity doesn't necessarily hold for early-exercise type options with dividends ... manually iterating vols until they match the market maybe the practical solution ... but it ain't a formula for put-call parity

Put-Call parity is usually defined by a formula that will reconcile put/call prices with respect to Spot / Strike / Carry ... something like Call = Spot + Put - presentValue Stike

Cheers
James
Yes and no. The trading platform will use a default interest rate and dividend flow. It will not adjust for very hard to borrow or your rate. Here is an example. BYND is very hard to borrow. The Sept ATM calls are 38.11 and the pouts are 82.95. There is still put-call parity but the default rate of 1.68% (10 year T-bill). That is not accurate for this symbol. I'd have to put in my cost to short it. Then add extra because you can't get a locate.



upload_2019-8-13_14-57-59.png
 
Yes and no. The trading platform will use a default interest rate and dividend flow. It will not adjust for very hard to borrow or your rate. Here is an example. BYND is very hard to borrow. The Sept ATM calls are 38.11 and the pouts are 82.95. There is still put-call parity but the default rate of 1.68% (10 year T-bill). That is not accurate for this symbol. I'd have to put in my cost to short it. Then add extra because you can't get a locate.



View attachment 207053

Robert

I would be interested to see your calculation of put-call parity at 150 / 160 / 170 strikes ...

However, BYND not a good example of the issue we are discussing
... as BYND has no dividend

Why not pick a more generic option that pays dividends before expiry date
... how about SPX ?

Cheers
James
 
Robert

I would be interested to see your calculation of put-call parity at 150 / 160 / 170 strikes ...

However, BYND not a good example of the issue we are discussing
... as BYND has no dividend

Why not pick a more generic option that pays dividends before expiry date
... how about SPX ?

Cheers
James
SPX is not a good example as it hedged with the future. This is SPY. Puts and Calls are almost equity Ivol at 1.68% for Sep expiration.

upload_2019-8-13_15-30-49.png
 
SPX is not a good example as it hedged with the future. This is SPY. Puts and Calls are almost equity Ivol at 1.68% for Sep expiration.

View attachment 207055

We seem to be dancing around the issue a little
... what has Ivol got to do with put-call parity ... except by showing there is a difference between call-put Vols ... you seem to be saying by definition that put-call parity does not hold for SPY

One final request for you to show the formula that reconciles put-call parity at say the 260 / 293 strikes
 
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