2008-01-16

Options Buyer Risk & Reward (3)

Third, the buyer can make money due to stock price movement.

As stated before, a time spread's value is at its maximum when the stock price and the spreads strike price are identical (at-the-money).

You could have an increase in value if you owned an out-of-the-money or in-the-money time spread, and the stock moved either up or down toward your strike.

As the stock moves closer to your strike, the spread will expand and increase in value creating a profit for you, the buyer.

The buyer's risks are obviously the opposite of the rewards.

You can not stop or reverse time so the buyer of the spread can never be hurt by time.Implied volatility, however, can decrease as easily as it can increase.

A decrease in implied volatility will decrease the value of the out-month option (which the buyer is long) faster than it will decrease the value of the nearer month option (which the buyer is short) due to the higher vega of the out-month option.

This will narrow the spread thereby creating a loss for the buyer.

In the same way that stock movement in the right direction can be profitable for the buyer of a time spread, stock movement in the wrong direction can be costly.

As the stock moves away from the spread's strike, the spread decreases in value.

That will create a loss for the buyer of the spread

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