Strangle
Option strategy buy Straddle / StrangleIn this post, I will start from the example and then write the definitions.
Our example will be on Boeing (BA), a hypothetical analysis might be that BA was trading sideways for more than half a year. Previous to that BA was down in price for more than 50%, also there was a rally of 100% between May and June. The volatility in the markets starting to rise, due to Covid-19, election, lockdowns, blue or red waves, vaccines, other news, etc. The trader expects a large move but doesn’t sure in which direction. Also, the rise in volatility enters into consideration, by our trader.
The trader search for a strategy that can be profitable in any direction and a rise in volatility will benefit him.
Straddle buying
A straddle purchase consists of buying both calls and puts with the same stock, option striking price, and expiration date. The straddle purchase allows the buyer of the options to make large potential profits if the stock moves far enough in either direction. The strategy has a limited loss and theoretically unlimited profit.
Buying a straddle should be done on stocks that have the potential to be volatile, this strategy is even more attractive if the options premiums are relatively low, which makes the straddle cost less and if the volatility will rise the buyer will profit much quicker. In general, the probability if held to expiration is near ~40%.
Most of the traders don’t wait till expiration. The options are At the money.
The example on the chart:
Blue lines – profit lines, yellow lines – break-even, red lines – 50% of maximum loss reached. Red zone – in this area the strategy losses money.
The options are from 30/10/2020 close in BA.
The strategy bought for -> 47.35, meaning a debit is being paid.
Stock price-> 144 , Upper strike (call)-> 140, Lower strike (put)-> 140
Days-> 203, Impleid volatility-> 54.4% (0.544), date-> 30/10/2020
The maximum loss is the debit paid for the strategy, in this case, $4735, the chance to lose all of it is less than 1%, the price needs to finish at expiration exactly at the strike price of the options $140, which means all the options will be worthless.
If the price will finish exactly at $163.69 a loss of 50% of the debit paid will occur, the puts will be worthless but the calls still have some value, but less value than the debit paid. If the price will finish exactly at $116.33 the trader will also lose 50% from the debit, but now the calls are worthless and the puts have value.
If the price will finish between $116.33-$163.69, a loss of 50%-100% from the maximum profit will be realized.
The prices of $92.65 and $187.35 represent the prices at which the strategy will break-even. At the lower price, the calls will be worthless and the puts will have value, at the higher price the other way around.
Those prices can be calculated:
Upper break-even point -> the strike price + the debit paid = 140+47.35=187.35
Lower break-even point -> the strike price - the debit paid = 140-47.35=92.65
The strategy presented on the chart has 147 days, before starting to lose 50% of the maximum loss (Debit paid).
If at any point the stock price will reach the dark blue line the strategy will profit $4735 if the light blue line will be reached the profit will be $9470.
How implied volatility affects the position? (20% increase and decrease)
20% IV increase -The buyer wants the implied volatility to increase, the strategy will start profit much sooner. The purple zone is the new loss area, the new area is much smaller than the previous one. The break-even lines are much closer to the end date and each other. It will take more time to reach the 50% loss lines 173 days instead of 147 days.
20% IV decrease – If the implied volatility will decrease, the purple loss zone will grow substantially, the break-even lines will go farther from one another and the 50% loss line could be reached much sooner, 63 days instead of 147.
Strangle Buying
A strangle is a strategy that uses both calls and puts, which have the same expiration date, but different striking prices. The difference between a strangle and a straddle is that the options are now Out of the money, because of that the strangle cost less than the straddle.
The example on the new chart:
Blue lines – profit lines, yellow lines – break-even, purple lines – 50% of maximum loss reached. Red zone – in this area the strategy losses money.
The options are from 30/10/2020 close in BA.
The strategy bought for -> 23.95, meaning a debit is being paid.
Stock price-> 144 , Upper strike (call)-> 190, Lower strike (put)-> 125
Days-> 203, Impleid volatility-> 54.4% (0.544), date-> 30/10/2020
Those options were chosen because they have a Delta of 0.3
The maximum loss is (-$2395) if the price will be at expiration between the strikes 125-190, the strategy will lose all the debit. (Broken red lines)
The other lines are the same concept as the straddle and their outcome is shown on the chart.
The break-even point calculation at expiration:
Upper break-even point -> the upper strike price + the debit paid = 190+23.95=213.95
Lower break-even point -> the lower strike price - the debit paid = 125-23.95=101.05
The strangle presented on the chart has 101 days, before starting to lose 50% of the maximum loss (Debit paid).
The increase and decrease in volatility will have the same effects, thus in the buyer analysis will anticipate an increase in volatility.
This post is related to previous posts.
You can come back and see what will happen with this particular example.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Strangle on Oil futuresThe oil price is going sideways at the moment. The implied volatility is relatively high. I choose a strangle with an 85% probability to finish in the green zone, between the $48-$69 prices in the next 41 days.
I have a follow-up action if the implied volatility will go higher or the price will move sharply up or down.
Always diversify your trades.
Virgin Galactic looking for a huge move? But which direction? With a possible head and shoulders pattern in the charts we could see a huge move down in price!
On the other hand, for about a month now I see a alright triangle forming for a possible leg higher!
So in conclusion I'm going to try an options strangle for a possible break out either way!
XBI High Conviction ReversalThe Biotech is oversold and is looking to revert back to mean. It is currently at its 180 SMA and ended Friday green forming a hammer candle pointing to an upwards move.
Trade Ideas:
Shares long between 136-140 to 145, 150, 160+ price targets. Bullish.
Short Put at 115 expiring 4/16 for $1.15 Credit. $1150 BPE is a little pricy, but still a decent max ROC of 10% but has a 90% POP. Neutral to Bullish.
Short Strangle 115-160 expiring 4/16 for $2.3 Credit. $1400 BPE, 20 max ROC and 78% POP.
AMZN will squeeze up/down: strangle + poor man's callAfter a long, sideways consolidation, Amazon is approaching the limit of this wedge. An earlier trend line forms resistance above at around 3700.
Play this with April/May expiration options. Open a long $3200/$3400 strangle expiring in May and sell a $3700 strike call expiring in April. The long $3400 call + the short $3700 call itself constitutes a poor man's covered call.
Option strategy sell Strangle/Straddle In the chart, you see the strangle strategy when sold, I will show what will happen if the implied volatility changes, you can see this strategy being bought in the next post. You can come back to this post and watch how things play out.
As a rule of thumb, strategies are sold when implied volatility is relatively high and bought when implied volatility is relatively low, the seller would try to anticipate IV decrease and the buyer would try to anticipate IV increase.
Selling Strangle
The strangle is a position involving calls and puts, they will have the same expiration date but different strike prices. Selling Strangle is established by selling Out of the money calls and puts when the stock price is usually in the center.
This strategy when selling a strangle is neutral, the seller anticipates that in the life of the options the stock price will remain between the strikes, and at expiration, the options will be worthless and the seller will receive all the credit.
The green zone is the profit zone, the yellow lines are the break-even lines, the blue lines are losing lines, the lime green lines represent when you can realize 50% of the credit. I added pink broken lines to show where this strategy will have the maximum profit at expiration.
For example, from the chart, these options are from 29/10/2020 close in Zoom.
The strategy sold for -> 44.6, meaning credit is received.
Stock price-> 489.68 , Upper strike (call)-> 600, Lower strike (put)-> 400
Days-> 50, Impleid volatility-> 82% (0.82), date-> 29/10/2020
For one position we received 44.6, multiplying by 100 (number of shares per contract) if the stock price will be between 400 to 600 at the expiration date , all the options will expire worthless, the seller will receive all the credit $4460 this is the maximum profit.
Upper break-even point at expiration:
The upper strike + credit received = 600+44.6 = 644.6
Lower break-even point at expiration:
The lower strike - credit received = 400-44.6 = 355.4
Between 600-644.6 and 355.4-400, one of the options is not worthless at expiration, so it has intrinsic value, the seller will get between $0-$4460, the seller will need to close the position before expiration to avoid assignment.
If the price got to 689.2 or 310.8, the position is losing, in this case (-$4460), this strategy has a limited profit and theoretically unlimited loss.
You can see from the chart that It will take at least 22 days to realize 50% of the credit, some traders don’t want to wait until expiration and they prefer to close the position at 50% credit.
How implied volatility affects the position? (20% increase and decrease)
The blue area is the new profit zone, the purple lines are the new losing lines.
If the IV will raise after entering the trade (left chart), the seller will need to wait 18 days before his position will re-enter the profit zone, what was before a profit area will now be a losing area.
On the other hand, if the IV will fall (right chart), the seller will profit much quicker, the losing lines will be farther away.
Selling Straddle
This strategy is a private case to the strangle (the general strategy), in the straddle both options the calls and puts are at the same strike price, usually At the money.
The strategy is sold at the money because the time premium is the largest there.
This means that the seller receives a lot more credit for this strategy, the downside is for getting the maximum profit the stock price needs to finish exactly at the strike price, the probability for this to happen is less than 1%.
The opportunity to realize 50% of the maximum profit will take longer than the strangle, in this example 39 days. The break-even lines will be much closer.
The maximum profit for this example is $11,690, much larger than the strangle.
The risks are also much larger.
How implied volatility affects the position? (20% increase and decrease)
The selling of the strangle and straddle are not for beginner traders, due to the risk involved, a less risker strategy is the Iron Condor .
In the next post, I will show the buying side of the strategies.