Hedge With Options
There are two basic choices in hedging a call option position establishing a short position in the stock or buying put options.
Hedge with options. The major downside to using options is the expiration date. A put option on a stock or index is a classic hedging instrument. Long term options can be expensive and a short term option may result in the options. Portfolio hedging with index put options in reality requires juggling of basis risk you can only hedge in 100 share units and correlation risk where correlation risk is the risk of hedging on the basis of the betas of the components of your portfolio.
However for the average investor trading those instruments are complex and potentially too risky. It protects your call option position as well as your trading principal. There are multiple strategies to carry out the idea of hedging risk with options. Options can be a great way to hedge against risk and to even eliminate risk in certain cases.
How put options work with a put option you can sell a stock at a specified price within a given time frame. One of those circumstances is with call options protecting you if you buy stocks at a low price when the call option is exercised. This can be achieved by trading inverse etfs and volatility etns. Hedging in the financial sense means that an investor has protected him or herself against a loss via a price movement of an asset.
Since a call option position is a long position that is an investment that will profit if the price of underlying stock goes up in order to hedge that position you must have an investment that will increase in value as the original call position decreases in value. Options give short sellers a way to hedge their positions and limit the damage if prices unexpectedly go up. Hedging with options is a great way to reduce the risks involved with making the purchase but it also reduces your potential profit. It is possible to hedge a short stock position by buying a call option.
Hedging with options is all about reducing risk. The very large numbers of available options allow you to tailor your put option hedge to cover specific stocks or sectors of the stock market and control the leverage vs. Hedging limits profitability but in return can protect from unexpected moves. Cost ratio of you hedging.