The thread on how to lock in profits made me think of the conundrum one faces when a long position is well in the plus. When I trade directionally I tend to buy options a ways out in time 8m-1y more or less and - rule of thumb - as far out of the money as the market expectations appears to be based on the ATM price.
E.g. I want to go long XYZ which is trading at 100$ - I look at the DEC 18 options and find the C DEC18 100 which is priced at 15$ - I would then buy the C DEC18 115 option of XYZ. So far so good.
Now fast forward and lets say things are going rippingly well and our stock is trading at 130$ obviously the position is in the profit, deltas have increased and the relative weight of the position in my portfolio has shot up. Lets for the sake of argument say that whilst I may be uncertain of the stock's short term direction - a pull back is never excluded - I have reason to remain bullish for the longer term. However fear and greed gnaw at you when you see the position, you dont really want to let go but you are also afraid that all that lovely profit might evaporate and you wind up with a mediocre position (this happened to me in a position IRBT this year). What is the best way to lock in the profits according to the board.
To make the example a little bit more live let me give the current situation on two positions where I took two different strategies:
on 9/25 I purchased 3 C SQ JAN19 30 @ 4.90
currently trading @ $21.55 - the delta is practically 98% and the position originally worth only about 1500$ now weighs in at 6000$
on 11/2 I purchased 2 C YY MAY18 95 @ 9.50 - probably spurred by the meteoric rise I decided that here I wanted a different strategy. So I sold @ 21 on 11/15 and did a delta neutral purchase of:
3 C YY MAY 18 120 @ 10.50 that netted me also ca. $1130 cash. These options are currently trading @ 17.75 The previous position trades @ 31.75$ so comparing:
YY OLD position if HELD - profit $5307
YY new position - profit - profit $ 3305 (this includes the netted cash)
I didnt back check what would have happened on SQ but I presume that despite purchasing a delta equivalent position by increasing the number of options the return would not be the same. The difference is the gamma, so clearly my approach on the YY position was not optimal. On the other hand when I Iook at the SQ position as much as I like the stock I do get vertigo not to mention that huge chunk of my portfolio hanging on a speculative stock.
So what is the optimal strategy here it being a given we want to stay in, reduce exposure a bit but preferably sacrifice as little (or nothing) on potential upside? Would it be possible to devise a purchase that would be both gamma and delta neutral without retaining the problem that a huge downswing hurts given position size?
E.g. I want to go long XYZ which is trading at 100$ - I look at the DEC 18 options and find the C DEC18 100 which is priced at 15$ - I would then buy the C DEC18 115 option of XYZ. So far so good.
Now fast forward and lets say things are going rippingly well and our stock is trading at 130$ obviously the position is in the profit, deltas have increased and the relative weight of the position in my portfolio has shot up. Lets for the sake of argument say that whilst I may be uncertain of the stock's short term direction - a pull back is never excluded - I have reason to remain bullish for the longer term. However fear and greed gnaw at you when you see the position, you dont really want to let go but you are also afraid that all that lovely profit might evaporate and you wind up with a mediocre position (this happened to me in a position IRBT this year). What is the best way to lock in the profits according to the board.
To make the example a little bit more live let me give the current situation on two positions where I took two different strategies:
on 9/25 I purchased 3 C SQ JAN19 30 @ 4.90
currently trading @ $21.55 - the delta is practically 98% and the position originally worth only about 1500$ now weighs in at 6000$
on 11/2 I purchased 2 C YY MAY18 95 @ 9.50 - probably spurred by the meteoric rise I decided that here I wanted a different strategy. So I sold @ 21 on 11/15 and did a delta neutral purchase of:
3 C YY MAY 18 120 @ 10.50 that netted me also ca. $1130 cash. These options are currently trading @ 17.75 The previous position trades @ 31.75$ so comparing:
YY OLD position if HELD - profit $5307
YY new position - profit - profit $ 3305 (this includes the netted cash)
I didnt back check what would have happened on SQ but I presume that despite purchasing a delta equivalent position by increasing the number of options the return would not be the same. The difference is the gamma, so clearly my approach on the YY position was not optimal. On the other hand when I Iook at the SQ position as much as I like the stock I do get vertigo not to mention that huge chunk of my portfolio hanging on a speculative stock.
So what is the optimal strategy here it being a given we want to stay in, reduce exposure a bit but preferably sacrifice as little (or nothing) on potential upside? Would it be possible to devise a purchase that would be both gamma and delta neutral without retaining the problem that a huge downswing hurts given position size?
