Option Debit Spreads and Theta

Posted on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 at 7:02 PM

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Hey Dan Passarelli here! Yesterday we talked about controlling Delta with debit spreads, but I also want to talk about how you can very precisely control one of your other Greeks, in this case Theta. Now the typical approach, like we've talked about in our last video for trading debit spreads is usually buying in at the money or pretty close to the money and then selling it out of the money. I always recommend selling the one closest to the resistance level that you think the stock can maybe get to, but not through. And if we do that, in this case, we'd be buying an option that has a let's see, if you buy the 134 calls, we'd be buying an option that has a twelve cent Theta. So we'd be paying twelve cents a day to carry this and then collecting nine cents a day. So paying a net of 3 cents a day. So that's one of the advantages of spreads is that it does keep our Theta lower straight off to begin with. But if we instead buy a more in the money option, like in this case, maybe the 130 calls, we'd be paying ten cents a day to own this one for Theta and collecting nine cents a day, our Theta drops down to only about a penny, almost a wash. And in fact, if we chose to sell the 137 strike, it would be in exactly zero Theta. So again, we have the same issue as with doing this to control the Delta. We are paying more for the long option. So we do stand to lose more if it goes drastically against us. If it starts going against us, of course we can try and close the position early and limit those losses, but this is a way to stem losses resulting simply from time passing. I hope that helps. This is Dan Passarelli Trade Smart.

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