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Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by simonebrunozzi on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:03PM (#22430014)
What's a "theta" ?
Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by kccqzy on Thursday February 27, 2020 @01:57AM (#22431244)
It's one of the option greeks. The original definition is basically the partial derivative of option price wrt time, i.e. it's the amount by which an option would lose in value per unit of time, when all else is equal. It's always negative.

Theta gang just means someone who sells options and expects that option to expire worthless, thereby profiting from the slow decay of option value due to theta. It's a legitimate strategy in the options world for professionals, not just for WSB autists. Here's a random example of a finance professional running this strategy successfully in his personal account: https://earlyretirementnow.com/2019/03/27/passive-income-thr...

Disclaimer: I don't know this person, nor do I recommend copying his strategy if you don't know the options greeks; actually the amount of money you would need to execute his strategy would probably make most options beginner uncomfortable anyways.

Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by throwlaplace on Thursday February 27, 2020 @12:18PM (#22435331)
in that post what does this mean

>I use some leverage to overcome the lower premium revenue.

he uses the premium from the OTM short puts to borrow?

Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by kccqzy on Thursday February 27, 2020 @01:21PM (#22436063)
It means he doesn't have the entire notional amount of an option to cover the short put.

For example, if you want to sell an SPX put at $3000 strike, then the notional value of that trade is $300k. He doesn't have $300k in the account for that one trade though. If you want a leverage factor of 2x, then for $300k in the account you'd trade two such options, each having a margin equity of $150k. Since you're trading two options, the profit and loss are both enlarged by 2x. The worst case scenario is that if SPX drops by 50% and he doesn't take any action before that, he'd have no money left.

The author mentioned that he uses a leverage of 2x to 3x. That means you need $100k to $150k in the account to trade a single contract. Hardly for beginners.

Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by manigandham on Thursday February 27, 2020 @12:53AM (#22430903)
Options are contracts that let you buy or sell shares at a certain price up until a certain date in the future where they expire. These contracts slowly lose value up to that date (outside of moves in stock price that make the contract worth more or less in the meantime).

Some people sell these contracts on the probability that they will expire worthless and they keep all the money that someone else paid for them.

Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by throwlaplace on Thursday February 27, 2020 @12:14PM (#22435264)
Re:Reddit’s profane, greedy traders are shaking up the stock... by siculars on Wednesday February 26, 2020 @10:23PM (#22430127)
someone who plays the sideways game. aka premium burn. google options greeks theta.