Saturday, September 4th, 2010

The cost of a call and the cost of a put are almost directly related. If you have a $40 stock, a $40 call and a $40 put will be almost exactly the same price most of the time. If there is a difference, the possibility of an arbitrage usually exists meaning that there is a 0 risk strategy (minus commissions) to get something for nothing. This is true whether it’s a collar or another strategy. I don’t completely understand the full process that allows for that to happen, but a complex series of trades usually makes it possible. So if the price of a call and put are going to be the same that means generally the higher priced calls are due to greater risk. Some reasons may be historical volatility, as that plays a roll, but the implied volatility, that is, how much people expect or are betting on the stock to move, becomes important.

Many good trading systems use multiple exit strategies. In normal trading system, you need to know when to exit from a gain, and when to exit from a loss. Generally you want to be cutting your profits short, and letting your profits run. At a minimum, you generally want nearly a 3:1 gain to loss. This means you should take profits at 3 times the percentage amount as you cut your losses short. We will use this system and do the following