Investors should only sell put options if they're comfortable owning the underlying security at the predetermined price, because you're assuming an obligation to buy if the counterparty chooses to exercise the option.
Selling puts is a bullish strategy because you earn a profit if a stock's price remains high and lose money when the price falls.
Put Option
The party with a short position SELLS the put option and believes that the underlying asset's price will increase. As such, this party is opening an options contract by selling (sell to open) the opportunity to sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before an expiration date for a premium.
In order to receive a desirable premium, a time frame to shoot for when selling the put is anywhere from 30-45 days from expiration. This will enable you to take advantage of accelerating time decay on the option's price as expiration approaches and hopefully provide enough premium to be worth your while.
Your broker should warn you (usually a few times during expiration week) that you own in-the-money options that will be exercised at expiration. You're better off selling the option, especially if there's some time value left, before expiration. Less cash is involved and commissions are lower as well.
So exercising a put option the day before an ex-dividend date means the put owner will have to pay the dividend. So if you've sold a put, this means you may have a lower chance of being assigned early, but only until the ex-dividend date has passed.
Buying a Put Option
Put buyers make a profit by essentially holding a short-selling position. The owner of a put option profits when the stock price declines below the strike price before the expiration period. The put buyer can exercise the option at the strike price within the specified expiration period.
Potential losses could exceed any initial investment and could amount to as much as the entire value of the stock, if the underlying stock price went to $0. In this example, the put seller could lose as much as $5,000 ($50 strike price paid x 100 shares) if the underlying stock went to $0 (as seen in the graph).
Which to choose? - Buying a call gives an immediate loss with a potential for future gain, with risk being is limited to the option's premium. On the other hand, selling a put gives an immediate profit / inflow with potential for future loss with no cap on the risk.
In general, you can earn anywhere between 1 and 5% (or more) selling weekly put options. It all depends on your trading strategy. How much you earn depends on how volatile the stock market currently is, the strike price, and the expiration date.
It's more a matter of good, better, best. Shorting options is good, period. Think of it this way: Selling options with low IV is good, selling options with mid-IV is better, and selling options with high IV is best.
Deep in the money options allow the investor to profit the same or nearly the same from a stock's movement as the holders (or short sellers) of the actual stock, despite costing less to purchase than the underlying asset. While the deep money option carries a lower capital outlay and risk; they are not without risk.
The most successful options strategy is to sell out-of-the-money put and call options. This options strategy has a high probability of profit - you can also use credit spreads to reduce risk. If done correctly, this strategy can yield ~40% annual returns.
If you sell a put right before earnings, you'll collect a high premium, but put yourself at risk of a big loss if the company misses and the stock declines. If you sell a put right after earnings, the stock decline has likely already happened and the premium you receive will be lower.
When a put option expires in the money, the contract holder's stake in the underlying security is sold at the strike price, provided the investor owns shares. If the investor doesn't, a short position is initiated at the strike price. This allows the investor to purchase the asset at a lower price.
Traders buy a put option to magnify the profit from a stock's decline. For a small upfront cost, a trader can profit from stock prices below the strike price until the option expires. By buying a put, you usually expect the stock price to fall before the option expires.
When you sell a put option, you agree to buy a stock at an agreed-upon price. Put sellers lose money if the stock price falls. That's because they must buy the stock at the strike price but can only sell it at a lower price. They make money if the stock price rises because the buyer won't exercise the option.
For the seller of a put option, things are reversed. Their potential profit is limited to the premium received for writing the put. Their potential loss is unlimited – equal to the amount by which the market price is below the option strike price, times the number of options sold.
When you sell a put, you're taking a bullish bias on the trade. As a result, you're doing the opposite of what you're used to doing when buying calls and puts because you are short instead of long. That may take some time getting used to.
It is a percentile number, so it varies between 0 and 100. A high IVP number, typically above 80, says that IV is high, and a low IVP, typically below 20, says that IV is low. How is IV percentile useful in options trading? Let us take an example.
So when implied volatility increases after a trade has been placed, it's good for the option owner and bad for the option seller. Conversely, if implied volatility decreases after your trade is placed, the price of options usually decreases. That's good if you're an option seller and bad if you're an option owner.
Options containing lower levels of implied volatility will result in cheaper option prices. This is important because the rise and fall of implied volatility will determine how expensive or cheap time value is to the option, which can, in turn, affect the success of an options trade.