Yes, you can sell a call option without owning the stock, a strategy known as selling a "naked call," which involves collecting premium income but carries significant risk because you're obligated to buy the stock at the (potentially much higher) market price if the buyer exercises the option. This is the opposite of a "covered call," where you own the stock, and it's considered high-risk, requiring margin and high capital, though some brokers restrict it, and strategies like "poor man's covered calls" (using another option as collateral) exist as alternatives.
Investors don't have to own the underlying stock to buy or sell a put. A reminder: Just like call options, put options are considered derivatives because their value is derived from another security (e.g., stock, bonds, index or currency). Here we focus on put options where the underlying asset is a stock.
Each contract represents 100 shares of the underlying stock. Investors don't have to own the underlying stock to buy or sell a call. If you think the market price of the underlying stock will rise, you can consider buying a call option compared to buying the stock outright.
Keep in mind: Robinhood doesn't allow uncovered or naked positions, as selling a call on stock you don't own may involve the risk of unlimited losses.
Call options are financial contracts that give the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy a stock, bond, commodity, or other asset or instrument at a specified price within a specific period. A call seller must sell the asset if the buyer exercises the call.
A call option gives you the right, but not the requirement, to purchase a stock at a specific price (known as the strike price) by a specific date, at the option's expiration. For this right, the call buyer pays an amount of money called a premium, which the call seller receives.
Money can be made in equities markets without actually owning any shares of stock. The method is short selling, which involves borrowing stock you do not own, selling the borrowed stock, and then buying and returning the stock only if or when the price drops.
The "Robinhood 25000 rule" refers to the FINRA Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule, requiring users in a margin account to maintain at least $25,000 in equity to perform unlimited day trades (four or more in five business days); otherwise, they face restrictions, though cash accounts or trading futures bypass this, and proposed changes could alter this rule.
A covered call is a basic options strategy that involves selling a call option (or “going short,” as the pros call it) for every 100 shares of the underlying stock that you own. It's a relatively simple options trade to set up, and it generates some income from a stock position.
Options contracts are valid for a certain amount of time in options trading. So if the owner doesn't exercise their right to buy or sell within that period, the contract expires worthless, and the owner loses the right to buy or sell the underlying security at the strike price.
The 7% sell rule is a stock trading guideline to cut losses quickly, advising you to sell a stock if it drops 7-8% below your purchase price to protect capital, remove emotion, and prevent small losses from becoming catastrophic, a strategy popularized by William O'Neil's CAN SLIM method for growth investing. It assumes that truly strong stocks typically don't fall much below their buy point, so a dip signals something is wrong, requiring you to exit the trade to preserve funds for better opportunities.
However, Warren Buffett took a different approach of using cash-secured puts. This strategy involves selling put options with an expected bottom price as the strike price to collect premiums. When the put option is exercised, the cost of buying the stock is reduced to (the stock price - option premium).
You sell call options when bearish on a stock's outlook. "Naked" options selling carries a much higher risk than "covered" positions, where you own the underlying stock as protection. That's because you might be on the hook for buying a stock just as its price is rising more than you anticipated.
The $100,000 rule for stock options, or the ISO $100K Limit, restricts the Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) that can become exercisable for the first time in a calendar year to a total Fair Market Value (FMV) of $100,000 per employee; any ISOs exceeding this limit lose their special tax treatment and become Non-Qualified Stock Options (NSOs), taxed as ordinary income upon exercise, not sale, to prevent abuse of ISO's favorable tax deferral benefits.
Most option traders lose money due to a lack of education, poor risk management, and emotional decision-making, often treating trading as gambling rather than a business, leading to overtrading, chasing quick profits, ignoring volatility (like V-crush), and failing to develop a disciplined, probability-based strategy with stop-losses and proper defense plans. They get caught by high probabilities against them, buying expensive out-of-the-money (OTM) options with low chances of success or failing to manage losing trades effectively.
The safest option strategy is the covered call. It involves holding a stock while simultaneously selling a call option on the same stock. This generates income through premiums while providing partial downside protection.
A naked call option is when an option seller sells a call option without owning the underlying stock. Naked short selling of options is considered very risky since there is no limit to how high a stock's price can go and the option seller is not “covered” against potential losses by owning the underlying stock.
Mistake #1: Strategy doesn't match your outlook
An important component when beginning to trade options is the ability to develop an outlook for what you believe could happen. Two of the common starting points for developing an outlook are using technical analysis and fundamental analysis, or a combination of both.
For Nifty options, option sellers generally need between ₹1,00,000 to ₹1,50,000 per lot, depending on the strike price, volatility, and market conditions. This represents a substantial increase from previous requirements, where intraday selling options might have needed only ₹50,000.
Many traders aim to earn about 1% to 2% per day, which would be $250 to $500 daily on a $25,000 account. However, real-life results vary and often depend on your trading style, experience, and the overall market conditions.
If you're marked as a Pattern Day Trader (PDT) on Robinhood (making 4+ day trades in 5 days in a margin account), you must maintain at least $25,000 in your portfolio to keep day trading; otherwise, you'll face a 90-day restriction from day trading, effectively a trading "timeout". This flag stays on your account, but you can potentially get a one-time removal or avoid restrictions by staying above the $25k equity requirement.
The "24-year-old trader making $8 million" refers primarily to Jack Kellogg, a successful day trader who reported over $8 million in gains from trading in 2020 and 2021, starting with just $7,500 and leveraging key indicators like VWAP, support/resistance, volume, and linear regression for simple, adaptable strategies. His story highlights achieving significant returns by weathering different market conditions, learning from losses, and sticking to core principles rather than overcomplicating things.
Short selling is legal because investors and regulators say it plays an important role in market efficiency and liquidity. By permitting short selling, a strategy that speculates that a security will go down in price, regulators are, in effect, allowing investors to bet against what they see as overvalued stocks.