How to adjust Options Position?

18 February 2015, 13:17
Cambrie Thomas
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Successful options trading is not about being correct for all market speculations every time, but about having a good options position adjustment technique. Things might go wrong, but you need proper techniques to get your strategy back on the profit track. Due to the delicate nature of the options market, it is imperative for traders to know the options position adjust skill.

Adjusting options positions is a technique of altering an existing position to create a more successful position. Options market has sensitive nature, so options traders need to be flexible in their trading strategies. Traders adjust options positions when the market outlook no longer reflects the trader’s thoughts. In options trading, it is essential that your position should always reflect your outlook. By adjusting an options position, you can minimize huge losses or create additional potential gains. One must learn to adjust a position, realize when an adjustment is necessary and determine the implications of adjusting an option position.

1. Determine the goal of the adjustment
An options trader should have clear idea about his or her goal behind adjusting the current options positions. Make sure that when you adjust your position, you are either creating a new strategy that could add to your success rate or reducing risk somehow and someway to minimize your losses. Rolling is one of the most common ways to adjust an option position. It’s possible to roll either a long or short option position.

2. Identify which market technicals have changed
When some of the major technical analysis indicators change unexpectedly, then you need to change your market outlook. Technical analysis gives entry and exit signals to options traders for making money in the trade options market. Any change in the analysis may impact your outlook, thereby causing the need to adjust option position.

3. Realize when to make an adjustment

Time is very important in making a decision, especially in options trading. You should have right options trading strategies at the right time in order to make most of the profits. Sometimes, by making a decision too early before all of the signals have been received can result in huge losses.

Determining how to adjust a particular position requires a number of strategies and these are:

Strategy: Buying a long call or put

Definition: This strategy adds positive or negative delta (Delta is the  rate of change on an option’s price relative to a change in  the underlying) to the position.

Strategy: Closing full or part of the position

Definition: Traders close the options trade for whatever debit or credit they can.

Strategy: Trading on opposite side

Definition: Through this strategy, you can sell a short call vertical spread when the put vertical spread was being overrun. This will acknowledge the shift in market bias.

Strategy: Buying short contracts of vertical spreads

Definition: Purchasing short contracts of a vertical spread, one can create a back spread with some characteristics of buying a long put or call.

Nobody is right on the market direction most of the time. Best traders can make profits even when market outlook changes by simply adjusting their option position. So, a trader must know when they are wrong and adjust their position accordingly.