Now that the market has hit 4 year highs, and many high flying stocks are also at similar levels, it may be a good time to protect your profits. Put Options explained in simple terms will give you an idea of why they are the ultimate protector for stocks you own – so let’s dig into the nuts and bolts of how Put Options work.
1) Assume you own 100 shares of Apple (AAPL). AAPL is trading at about $695 today, and let’s say you bought it at $600/share. You paid $60K for these shares assuming no margins. You have a paper profit of $95/share.
2) The first thing you have to decide is how long you want the protection for. If you feel AAPL may come down in the next 3 months, then you need protection for 3 months. On the other hand you may want protection for a year. The longer you need protection for, the more your Put Option is going to cost. Makes sense. You pick your protection timeframe shown in Figure I (The number in brackets is the number of days until this Put Option expires). Lets pick 3 months for our example.
3) Just like you choose other insurance plans, you decide what kind of insurance you want. You can get the Ferrari plan, the Cadillac plan or the Kia plan. Obviously, the Ferrari plan costs more than the Cadillac which costs more than the Kia plan. (Figure II and III)
4) The Ferrari plan can protect your AAPL stock below $700. But you pay more at $45/share. The Cadillac plan costs less at $26/share but protects your stock below 660. And the Kia plan is the least costing $16/share, but protects your stock below $630. (Figure IV).
5) Put Options increase in value when the stock goes down, and this is why Put Options are the ultimate protector of your stock. Its like buying insurance – but all insurance costs money. Think of it this way – if you own a car worth 60K, you don’t think twice about protecting it with insurance that may cost $1000 – to $1500 per year. Its no different for a stock, if you have profits, you should protect it.
6) Figure V shows the Ferrari plan (100 shares of AAPL and 1 Option contract which is equivalent to 100 shares). Below an AAPL price of $700, your losses are protected, as shown by the horizontal green line which is flat. No more losses. But on the upside, if AAPL continues to go up, your profits keep increasing. Talk about having the cake and eating it too.
7) Figure VI is the Cadillac plan. Protection only kicks in at a price of $660 or below. But you paid much less for this Put Option. And Figure VII is the Kia plan, which protects you at a price level of $630.
8) All 3 Options provide protection for your stock. Your coverage differs but your cost also differs. You make the choices – how long and at what point do you want the protection and how much you’re willing to pay for it. Your reward will also depend upon your choice. The Ferrari Put option will make a profit much before and much more than the Cadillac Option, which will make much more than the Kia Option.
9) One important point to bear in mind is that all Options expire. The 700 strike price Option will be worth 0 in 95 days if AAPL price is above 700 on the day of expiry. On the other hand, if AAPL price is 650, then the 700 strike Put Option will have a value of $50/share (the difference between 700 and 650. This is called the intrinsic value of the Option). Similarly, the Cadillac Option at 660 will be worthless if AAPL price is above 660 on the day of expiry. And the Kia Option will be worthless if AAPL price is above 630 on the day of expiry. This is just like buying car insurance for a year, but you did not have an accident or claim of any sort, so your Option (insurance policy) expired worthless. You gotta buy new protection now. Same goes for your AAPL stock.
10) Let’s say AAPL crashed to 400. Your stock would lose $200/share because you bought it at $600. The Ferrari Option at a strike price of 700 that you bought for $45 would be worth $300, so your net gain would be $55 (300 – 200 – 45). The Cadillac Put Option would be worth $260, so your net gain would be $34 (260 – 200 -26). The Kia Put Option would be worth $14 (230 – 200 – 16). You make a profit in all 3 cases even though AAPL crashed to $400.
Put Options provide the ultimate protection on the downside, while preserving your ability to make profits on the upside. Check out Modules II and III for complete courseware, and live trading examples.
I am not sure I agree with the position taken in the above example. I am convinced that the only way to make any money investing in stocks is to do your homework and invest money for the long term (years, not days). One of the components of option price is time premium. which is guaranteed to decrease with the passing of time. So it is a guaranteed gain if you sell it and a guaranteed loss if you buy it, no matter what the underlyng stock does.
So, assuming you purchased 100 share of AAPL we must also assume that your home work told you that it will not go out of business before your investing horizon is reached.
So you bought AAPL at 600 and it is at 695 and you want to protect your profit. If you believe that your homework was flawed and APPLE might enter a downtrend longer than your investment horizon just sell the shares. If you however believe that your opinion of AAPL still stands and the stock price might correct for certain period of time before recovering, then I would suggest that selling 690-700 calls could make more sense and more lucrative.
Hi Bill,
I have not taken any position in this post – its just “Put Options explained”..If you were to use Put Options to protect your profits, these are some ways to do it and all the different issues to consider. There are many strategies you can use including selling your stock to book profits, selling a call spread as you have mentioned, and many others as well. Thanks for chiming in.
Stock + Puts = Long calls. The risk graph is the same.
If stocks crash then Puts make a profit. But what happens to the stock, if you hold on then your only breaking even. Should you sell the stock