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Using a Put Selling Strategy: A Step-By-Step Lesson On Selling Options
by Lee Lowell, Advisory Panelist
Stock and Commodity Analyst, Mt. Vernon Research
Monday, June 29, 2009: Issue #1029
Let’s say you’ve been interested in buying Microsoft stock and you feel $20 is a good price to pick up some shares. It currently trades at $23.50 per share, so you’ll need it to fall in price a bit before getting filled on the trade.
Most stock traders would just put in a “limit buy” order to buy the stock if/when Microsoft falls down to $20 per share. But there’s no guarantee that Microsoft will ever fall to $20 per share, and there’s no one paying this stock trader upfront for his time while they wait to buy Microsoft at $20…
That is unless you’re using a put selling strategy…
As an option trader, you can take the transaction one step further by selling a Microsoft $20 put option contract – you’ll receive the going rate for that option and receive instant income.
I recently showed Investment U readers some of the ins and outs of put options – you can read all about them, but right now I’m going to show you how to profit from a real life example of selling puts options.
Selling Naked Put Options – Strike Prices & Option Chains
When selling naked put options, it can be hard to grasp how the strike prices and contract prices work together until you understand what an option price list – or option chain – looks like.
Take a look at Microsoft’s option chain below:
Chart: http://www.investmentu.com/images/iu062909chart.gif
This is a typical option chain for Microsoft options that expire in January 2010.
- The strike prices are listed in the column in black. Since we’re interested in the $20 strike price, we look at the JAN10 20.00 line.
- Scan over to the “bid” column that shows how much you can receive for selling that $20 put option contract. The bid column shows $1.30 as the price. This translates into $130 you will receive for every $20 put option contract you sell because all prices are in listed in per share costs. And an option contract controls 100 shares of stock.
- For a typical 1,000 share stock trade, you can sell 10 put option contracts and instantly receive $1,300 in your account, no questions asked.
This is money for you to use anyway you see fit. No matter what happens, this money is yours.
In exchange for selling those 10 put option contracts and receiving your instant $1,300, you are obligating yourself to buy 1,000 shares of Microsoft at a price of $20 per share until the expiration day in January 2010.
At this point, you know ahead of time that you will be obligating yourself to buy 1,000 shares of Microsoft at $20 per share, for a total investment of $20,000.
Not only do you get to collect $1300 upfront just for placing the option trade, but you’re also giving yourself a chance to buy a stock that you want to own, at the price you want.
How great is that?
As long as you know this potential future transaction is within your financial means and trading plan, then it is a win-win situation for you.
When Selling Options, What Happens On Options Expiration Day?
So, when selling put options or any options, people often ask what happens when options reach their expiration date?
Only two things can occur at expiration – either the price of the stock is above the chosen strike price or it’s below.
- If the stock finishes above the strike price, then the trade is over and the option expires worthless. The option buyer walks away with nothing while the option seller gets to keep the upfront cash with no further obligations.
- If the stock finishes below the strike price at option expiration, the option buyer will “exercise” his right to the contract and you will be required to fulfill your end of the agreement – which means you end up having to buy a stock you wanted at the price you wanted.
Sounds pretty good to me. And all the while you still get to keep the upfront cash.
So in the case of our Microsoft example above…
- If Microsoft closes below $20 in January 2010, you will be obligated to purchase your 1,000 shares at $20 each. With the $130 received upfront for each option contract, this essentially reduces your cost basis to $18.70 per share once the transaction is complete. Not bad.
- If Microsoft closes above $20 at January 2010 expiration, the trade is over and the option expires worthless. You keep the $1,300 and are free to repeat the process again for another expiration period. This is the key to income generation.
As I mentioned in my article about selling naked put options article that up to 90% of option contracts will expire worthless, leaving you with the upfront cash payment.
After implementing this strategy for a while, you will come to see that most of the trades will expire and you’ll keep padding your account with instant income.
Using a Put Selling Strategy – Six Tips to Selling Options
A few guidelines to keep in mind when selling naked put options:
- Only sell put options on stocks you want to own. Do not use this options trading strategy on high flyers just to receive the upfront income.
- Only sell enough contracts to stay within your comfort zone. If you normally trade in 500-share blocks, then only sell five option contracts.
- If you are uncomfortable at anytime during the trade, or do not wish to own the stock at the strike price you’ve chosen, then you can unwind the trade at any point. All you have to do is buy back the put options you’ve sold.
- The option price will fluctuate during the course of the trade. It may get cheaper or more expensive while you hold it. The bottom line is – you’ll either get to buy the stock at expiration or the option will expire with no value.
- You will need to have an approved “option trading account” with your broker. This needs to be set up before making these transactions.
- You’ll always know ahead of time what your potential total outlay will be if obligated to buy the shares. No surprise endings.
That’s all there is to selling put options. It’s easy, simple and much safer than most investors imagine if you just stick to my six tips above.
Using Put Options With The Instant Money Trader
These are the profitable types of trades we execute in The Instant Money Trader service.
In fact, since launching in November 2008, we’ve had a 100% win streak, meaning all the options have expired worthless, allowing us to bank all the money paid to us upfront from the option buyers.
Although we concentrate on selling put options on high quality stocks within the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 that we’d be more than happy to own, we’ve yet to have to fulfill our obligation and purchase them.
This is mostly because we sell the put options that have the high percentage of expiring worthless. It’s fine with us, as we’ll gladly keep accepting all the instant money we get from these transactions.
We’re able to pick quality stocks that are paying good money to us, all the while knowing that we’ll either take possession of these great stocks or repeat the process for the next month.
Good investing,
Lee Lowell
P.S. If you’d like to find out more about profitable put option selling, take a look at The Instant Money Trader.
- Selling Naked Put Options: How to Get Paid to Buy Stocks
- Using Put Options: How to Grab Discounts and Instant Money Everyday
- Selling Put Options: How It’s Done & How Easy It Can Be
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12 Responses to “Using a Put Selling Strategy: A Step-By-Step Lesson On Selling Options”
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Along with Karim, Lee is one of America's leading options professionals. Over the course of a distinguished career, which includes six years in the options "trenches" as a market maker on the floor of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), he has developed a proprietary trading method capable of enormous upside while actually reducing risk. 
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June 29th, 2009 at 10:00 am
One other advantage is that puts can be moved out up or down in price as conditions warrant.
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June 29th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Not all of them expired worthless, remember GE a while ago? I ended up having to buy the stock, fortunately the stock went up and I made a small profit.
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June 29th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Thank you so much for writing this! I have traded calls but have made a hard time making the “leap” to puts. Thank you for using an actual scenario to help us understand this concept better.
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June 29th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
My discount online broker does not allow selling naked puts. What are some other companies that will allow this?
Thanks
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June 29th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
pl explain the byer side story too.He is the one who pays upfront money? How does he benefit?
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June 30th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
great job. i have always had trouble getting my, brain wrapped around puts; you’ve helped no end. question:do dividends have any impact on a transaction of this nature? d l hutchins i think not but would like your response to this.
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July 3rd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
You explained it concisely, easy to understand.I am selling covered calls for a long time and kicking myself for not using your straregy before. Now I only have to make sure I keeep enough cash to buy the stock if i have to.I am sure it will work well.
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July 5th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Is there anything other put besides a ‘naked put’? I am confused by the names.
If you sell a put, you probably don’t have the stock already. So aren’t all puts ‘naked’?
Thanks for your reply.
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August 10th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Great info…selling increases profitability over buying as there is a 2 out of 3 chance to make money…as opposed to buying which has only a 1 out of 3 chance to be profitable.
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October 27th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Thank you for the clarity on the nuts & bolts of the naked put! What is the median life span [purchase/execute to expiration] of these trades as prescribed by the Instant Money Trader?
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November 1st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I think a “covered” put would be writing a put on shorted shares.
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January 6th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Great job! I only sell puts on ETFS and some stocks I like to own cheaper. You mentioned in you writing above that repeat this monthly. I sell mostly puts expiring in 9 to 12 months on margin 10 to 15% below stocks market prices. Generally I collect 10 to 11% premium a year but because of margin I make 20 to 25%. I want to collect more money. Is selling puts on long expiry dates give more premium than with 1 or 3 months expiry. Make sure you consider broker’s commissions when you calculate net annual percentage of premium collected. Waiting for your reply. Thaks very much.
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