Options Bootcamp 46: Building a Better Hedge

Roll Call: Bringing in the Big Guns

Our guest today is Jim Bittman, Senior Instructor at The Options Institute.

He discusses:

What sort of content/classes our listeners can access at The Options Institute What the number one options question is that he receives from students What is the number one options mistake and/or misperception students may have about the options market? What changes did he make in your recent renovation at The Options Institute, and what can our listeners expect from your new facilities?

Mail Call: Listener questions and comments

Question from Kevin Duggan - Hi Mark, Great show! I have been listening to episodes for months but it was only recently that I saw Dan’s picture- shocking! In my mind I have always pictured Walter White, as they sound exactly alike and, you always refer to his black hat. You can imagine my surprise when I saw Dan’s pretty face and those curly brown locks. Shave that bean, Heisenberg! Re: short puts (I'm already long calls) If I am certain the stock will move higher fairly quickly, wouldn't it be best to sell the big, meaty, long term puts? If I sell a weekly for .45 and then close it at .20, where's the fun? How do you balance term and premium in naked shorts? Thanks, Kev Question from Josh Norell - Hello everyone, enjoy the show, I am trying to work out the details with a diagonal collar, and its adjustments. I want to buy a stock, buy an OTM put several months out, and sell weekly OTM calls against it. If the stock rises, I get called away, all is well and good, and I can just buy the stock back next week and do it again. Where I am confused is when the stock drops below my put strike. What do I do? Because of the puts lower delta, for every dollar I lose on the stock, I am gaining less than 1 dollar on the put. So do I exercise the put and lose all its extrinsic value? Do I roll it down and hope for a retracement? Do I just blast out more calls? A little help, please. Josh Question from INC429 - VXX or VIX options? Which is the better hedge for a broad based equity portfolio? Question from Buckeye -I enjoyed the discussion about the percentage of a portfolio one should devote to hedging on the last episode. I do have a question about the 1.5%-2% figure discussed on the program. If that was for a three-month put, then you are talking about 6-8% on an annualized basis. Given that most funds only return about 7% a year, will that not eat up all of the profits in your portfolio? Or am I missing something? Thanks again for this excellent program. It truly is a unique source of options education. It makes my long train ride much more bearable.