Hi Raunak
About the SL for your option trades. As I mentioned the possibility to use a certain % of your option account as SL, I like to give some deeper thoughts on that subject. I am clear, that this is not easy stuff to understand and I am clear,that this may even not can be made in your home market. Even then, here it goes :
To set your SL on any option trade, you should clearly define what kind of option trader you will be. If you want to be a strategy option trader or if you want to be a short time intra day option trader will be a big different.
- As a strategy trader, you may use the first option just as an entry to the next step. You than have to be 100% sure about the influence of the options greeks on your positions and would define your first SL in this strategy on the move of the underlying include watching the market for any bad reaction. The next stop losses in your strategy are always the break evens of the whole legs you already implemented. This break evens can be seen on any analyzing picture.
- You also can go for a SL with the capital you needed to pay for this option and say, ok it will cost me 300 R and this 300 R I can loose. So, you already decided in advance, what you can loose and in this case it is 300 R which is an other kind of SL.
- If you want to be a short time intra day option trader, you can set a SL individual on each trade. This SL can be soft or very clear defined. As you may remember : Mindless trader has explained the problem with that. If you set a SL very hard, you may get hit and market starts to move again in your direction. On the other hand, if you set a soft SL in your head, you must stay on the screen and watch your position. The danger with this is, that you could fall in a hope trap. You are in a loss and you not get out of the trade, as your mind not can be wrong. If you would have here a hard stop loss, you would be filed and finish. Hope you see the point. It is a little bit like a catch 22.
One solution is to go for a mix of both of this option trader types and SL. If this can be done in your home market, I do not know. Your guys would have to test that.
Buy out of the month options from a share. I know, the volume there is may not so big, but it will be your insurance. You may now say : What insurance ? The next step you will do, is selling actual atm options on the share. You only sell the exact amount of options you bought on this share, otherwise you will have a miss balance on one side of the hedge. If stock moves up, you will make money with the long call.
If stock moves down, you will lose money on the long call and you will make money with the short call atm or itm. As the short call has a higher delta and a quick moving theta, it will make more money, than the out of the month long call is loosing. This two options are your insurance.
So where to set a SL. As the execution of options is not optimal, you go and trade now with the stock instead with the options. As you are better in stocks, you now can trade your stock with a soft stop loss. Your options are the insurance for any bigger mistakes you may make, when trading the stock. Your options should not cost much, as you get money in your pocket with the sold one. With this money you pay the long out of the month option. With other words, you have an insurance for little money. As you now can trade the stock with a soft SL, you will make your money with the stock. The SL for the options you have are given with the break even points on the analyze picture. Check them some times, as they change when volatility changes in the market.
The option strategy is named a calendar call. The way of trading I show here needs a lot of experience, as you have to be clear about the option strategy and you have to be clear about how to trade the stock. Quit advanced, so be very clear by your self what you do.
So, hope it was not to complicated and you may even like such strategies.
Have a nice Sunday evening.
DanPickUp