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Posted April 17, 2008 (04:23PM)
Buying deep ITM calls gives you a larger Delta. Which is the relationship to which the option value moves to a $1 change in stock price. You will pay more for it, but it gives you a closer approximation to owning the stock itself. I NEVER buy an option in the current month. The time decay on its value is brutal in the last 30 days. Think of it this way. You can buy 10 current month contracts for .50 each or you could buy 1 contract 3 months out for 5 dollars. Your really paying the same for both except the later gives you time to be wrong on the move without having to panic. It also gives you a Delta of say .75 which will be roughly what your 10 contracts will add up to. With the 10 contracts you will pay 1.65 on each one when buying and selling them. You only pay the 1.65 once with the single contract. When I first started I always went with the cheap options and bought a bunch of them, until I learned its less risky to go 3-6 months out and deep ITM. You get pretty much the same thing just way more room to manuever if things don't go your way. Here is what I do. I trade options like they were stock. As an example I may want to buy 100 shares of the QQQQ. When its trading at $45 I'd shell out $4500 to buy the shares. I would tie up 1/3 of my portfolio to own these shares. I would have a 1:1 ratio on the amount the stock goes up or down. A Delta of 1. Or I could go out 3-4 months and buy a DITM Call at say $40. The premium would be about $5.00 to make this trade. It would cost $500 to control those 100 shares of the QQQQ. Because they are DITM my Delta would be around .75 The time decay this far out is basically nill so I only have to be concerned with the direction move and when I want to exit. Time is no longer a factor for my shorterm trade. Now what I have done is tied up 1/8 the capital to hold these options then I would have if I bought the stock out right, but I reap 75% of the stocks gain if it moves higher. Not a bad deal huh? This is called a stock substitute strategy and it works quite well. The next best thing to owning the stock itself. Just trade the options themselves as if their stock.
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