A “gut spread” might sound like a good name for what happens when we habitually eat too many pizza rolls, but in the financial world, it means something very, very different.
A “gut spread” is a type of option spread, and in this scenario, our options are called “guts” because our put and call options are both in-the-money: our call option’s strike price is below market value and our put option’s strike price is above market value. Being in-the-money also means that these options are a little more expensive than their out-of-the-money kin; they have more intrinsic value, which is also why they’re referred to as “guts.” They’re hearty. If we buy both puts and calls, it’s a long gut spread; if we sell both puts and calls, it’s a short gut spread.
Why? Let’s say there’s a new ocean clean-up company on the scene that we’ve been looking at. They’ve got a unique business model for removing plastic from the water that involves ginormous, floating Roomba-looking things, and we’re not sure whether they’re going to be successful or not. In this situation, we might go with a long gut spread: we’re not sure whether the price of their stock will go up or down, but we’re sure it’s going to do one of the two in a big way, and we’re gonna make some money on it.
On the other hand, let’s consider Taxidonculous, a company that makes tax accounting software. Their stock has been humming along with no major fluctuations for a while now, and we expect that trend to continue. In this case, we might go with a short gut spread: we’ll get paid hefty premiums up front, since our options are in-the-money, and we’ll also probably (hopefully) avoid losing money since the stock price is relatively stable.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What Is a Put Option?83 Views
finance a la shmoop what is a put option? hot potato hot potato
ow ow! yeah remember that game well nobody wanted the potato, poor thing. the
players wanted to put it in someone else's hands. well put options kind [glue put around a flaming potato]
of work the same way. a put option is the right or option or choice to sell a
stock or a bond at a given price to someone by a certain end date.
all right example time. you bought netflix stock at the IPO a zillion years
ago at $1 a share. that's you know splits adjusted. all right now it's a hundred
bucks a share. if you sell it you pay taxes on a gain of 99 dollars a share. in
California that would be a tax of something like almost 40 bucks. well the
stock was a hundred but you keep only something like 60. feels totally unfair.
right so you really don't want to sell your stock but you're nervous about the [graph shown]
next few months that Netflix will crater for a while and go down ten
maybe twenty dollars. longer term though you think it'll hit 300. so this is the
perfect setup to maybe look at buying some put options on Netflix. if the stock
goes down your put options go up. with Netflix volatile but at a hundred bucks
a share ,you look up the price of an $80 strike price put option expiring in
December, and you know that's mid-september now .for five bucks a share
you can protect your stock for the next few months .think about it like temporary [stocks placed in vault]
term life insurance. you pay the five dollars a share in the stock goes down
to 82 by mid December, worst of all worlds. well not only did you lose the $5
a share but your stock has lost $18 in value. but had Netflix really cratered
and gone to say $60 a share well you would have exercised your put and sold
your shares at 80 bucks. well those put options you paid $5 for
would be been worth 15 bucks a share. in buying that put option you've [equation shown]
guaranteed that your loss will be no more than a $75 value for your Netflix
position at least for that time period and ignoring taxes. well remember that
options expire after December whatever like the third Friday of the month it's
usually when options expire, you then have no protection and your shares float
along naked. naked? really who knew accounting could get so [paper put option goes "skinny dipping".]
raunchy. yeah well that's naked put options.
that's what they really are people.
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