Certain complex options strategies carry additional risk. Robinhood Financial does not guarantee favorable investment outcomes and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing. To learn more about the risks associated with options, please read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before you begin trading options.

Supporting documentation for any claims, if applicable, will be furnished upon request. Please also be aware of the risks listed in the following documents: Day Trading Risk Disclosure Statement and FINRA Investor Information. Getting Started. My account and login. Investing with Options. Options Knowledge Center. Basic options strategies Level 2. Advanced options strategies Level 3.

Placing an options trade. Expiration, Exercise, and Assignment. Limit Order - Options. Stop Limit Order - Options. Fill likelihood. Options Collateral. How Corporate Actions Affect Your Options.

Options Alerts. Options rolling. General questions. IPO Access. Information and Labels. As with most long strategies, the goal is to buy low and sell high. Look for an underlying stock or ETF whose price is trending up or likely to increase soon.

Consider one on the lower end of its implied volatility range with potential to increase over the life of the trade. Choose an expiration date that aligns with your expectation for when the underlying price will increase. Technically, you can choose any available expiration date, but generally, the textbook approach is to buy a call with about 90 days until expiration.

This provides more time for the underlying price to potentially rise while balancing costs and mitigating losses from time decay, which accelerate as expiration approaches.

Shorter-dated calls are cheaper, but will be more impacted by time decay, while longer-dated calls are more expensive and more sensitive to changes in implied volatility. Which strike price you choose will determine the cost of your option, its sensitivity to changes in the price of the underlying stock, and the probability of it expiring in-the-money. Manage your risk accordingly. Although owning stock and buying a call are both bullish strategies, they have many differences:.

Stock represents ownership in a company , whereas a call option is a contract that represents the right to buy shares of the underlying stock or ETF. As a shareholder, you may have voting rights and be entitled to any dividends paid by the company.

As the owner of a call option, you have no shareholder rights unless you exercise and convert your call into shares. Options have an expiration date. This means there will be a day in the future when you can no longer trade or exercise your option. When you own stock, you can keep your shares for as long as the stock exists. A long call has unlimited theoretical profit potential and limited theoretical loss.

At expiration, it profits if the underlying stock is trading above the breakeven price. The theoretical max gain is unlimited. The theoretical max loss is limited to the premium paid.

If the underlying stock is trading at or below the strike price at expiration, the option will expire worthless. The breakeven point at expiration is equal to the strike price plus the premium paid for the option.

Owning shares can result in losses greater than the premium paid for the call option. This is a theoretical example. Actual gains and losses will depend on a number of factors, such as the actual prices and number of contracts involved. A long call benefits if the underlying stock price rises quickly, ideally above the strike price. In addition, if implied volatility rises your option will likely increase in value, assuming all other factors remain constant. Meanwhile, if the underlying stock price drops, implied volatility falls, and time passes, the value of your call will likely decrease.

This is not ideal. At some point, you must decide whether or not to sell your option, roll it, or hold it into expiration. Around days to expiration, time decay begins to accelerate. The closer your option is to expiration, the more extrinsic value it will lose each day. Ultimately, the call option will only be worth its intrinsic value in-the-money amount at expiration. If your option is profitable, consider taking action before expiration.

The longer you wait, the more extrinsic value will come out of the option. Of course, this may be offset by any further gains in the underlying stock price. If the call is worth less than your original purchase price you can attempt to cut your losses by selling it before expiration.

This would result in a loss on the trade. Option Greeks are a way of measuring the sensitivity of an option's price to various factors like price, time, implied volatility, and interest rates.

For a long call:. Delta is positive. As the call option becomes more in-the-money it will approach a 1. As it becomes more out-of-the-money it will approach a 0. Gamma is positive. Theta is negative.

Vega is positive. Rho is positive. Keep in mind : Option Greeks are calculated using options pricing models and are theoretical estimates. All Greek values assume all other factors are held equal.

Although you have the right to exercise your option, typically, this is not how many traders close a long call. Instead, you might consider selling your call before expiration to avoid the exercise process, and any additional risk that it may introduce.

To close a long call you can do the following that's described in this section:. Prior to expiration, you can try to sell your long call.

You can also roll your position. This allows you to establish a similar position, while managing your risk prior to expiration. When you own a call, you have the right to buy shares of the underlying stock or ETF at the strike price by expiration assuming you have the required buying power. For this reason, it rarely makes sense to exercise early. However, exercising early can make sense for some scenarios, including:. To capture an upcoming dividend payment.

Remember, shareholders receive dividends, option holders do not. If your option is in-the-money, and the remaining extrinsic value is less than the upcoming dividend, it could make sense to exercise prior to the ex-dividend date. If you cannot sell your call option for at least its intrinsic value, you can exercise the option and offset it with the necessary sale of shares to close the resulting long stock position.

Finally, do not exercise an out-of-the-money call option. Holding your position into expiration can result in a max gain or loss scenario and carries certain risks that you should be aware of. Learn more in Expiration, exercise, and assignment. If the option expires out-of-the-money it will expire worthless and be removed from your account. If the option expires in-the-money it will be automatically exercised.

If you do not have the necessary buying power, Robinhood may attempt to place a Do Not Exercise DNE request on your behalf. To implement a DNE request, you can submit it after 4 PM ET , and we must receive it by no later than 5 PM ET on the expiration date. This only applies to regular market hour days. For a long call, be cautious of automatic exercise. As mentioned, if your option is in-the-money at expiration, your long call will automatically be exercised.

Important : To help mitigate the risk, Robinhood may close your position prior to market close on the expiration date; however, this is done on a best-effort basis.

Ultimately, you bear the full responsibility of managing the risk within your account. A covered call is a bullish strategy that involves owning shares of the underlying stock or ETF and simultaneously selling a call option also known as a short call. At Robinhood, you must already own shares of the underlying stock or ETF to sell a call. In options trading, short describes selling to open, or writing an option.

Selling a call obligates you to sell shares of the underlying at the strike price, if assigned. As the seller, you have no control whether or not your call is assigned—the buyer decides whether or not to exercise the option.

Although you receive a cash credit at the outset, your potential profit or loss on the option is not realized until the short call is closed. Meanwhile, the overall profit or loss on the combined position depends on the price of the underlying shares. A covered call is a bullish strategy. You might consider one if you think the underlying stock price will moderately rise in the near future.

Having said that, it can also be used if you think the stock will remain relatively stable, or even drop slightly. Covered calls can be used for a number of reasons, including:. To create a covered call, you must first own shares of the underlying stock or ETF for each call you plan to sell. Start by selecting an expiration date and then choose a strike price.

Typically, a covered call is opened by selling an out-of-the-money call option. Next, select your order type, and specify your price. When selling a call, the closer your order price is to the bid price, the more likely your order will be filled.

A covered call is commonly used to generate income. Unlike other options-only strategies, a covered call is a combination of long shares and a short call option. As such, the price of the long stock ultimately determines whether the combined strategy will be profitable or not. This is an ideal scenario because the value of the long shares will have appreciated and the short call will be at a max gain.

Just remember, when you sell a covered call, you make a tradeoff—you collect a premium and in exchange, you give up the profit potential of your long shares above the strike price of the short call. To sell a call you must own shares of the underlying which act as collateral. Although you collect a credit to sell the call, your potential profit or loss is not realized until you close the option, or it expires. Consider one on the higher end of its implied volatility range, with potential to decrease over the life of the trade.

Based on liquidity and other factors, not every stock or ETF will be an ideal candidate for a covered call. Choose an expiration date that optimizes your window for success. When selling covered calls, traders will most often look at options expiring in days. This timeframe provides a good balance between the collected premium and the rate of time decay, which begins to increase at 45 days to expiration.

If you sell an option with fewer days to expiration, the rate of decay will be even greater, but the amount of premium may not be enough for some to justify placing the trade.

Meanwhile, if you sell options with a longer expiration date, the premium will be greater but the rate of time decay will be minimal until that option gets closer to expiration. When selecting a strike price , the most common approach is to sell an out-of-the-money option. Out-of-the-money calls are when the strike price is higher than the underlying stock price.

If you choose an expiration date that is further out, it may be advisable to sell a call that is further out-of-the-money, providing more room for the stock to move higher given the extended time frame.

A call is in-the money is when the strike price is lower than the underlying stock price. Although a covered call and a naked call both involve selling a call option, these two strategies are very different:. A covered call involves owning shares of the underlying stock and a naked call does not.

A covered call has defined risk, whereas a naked call has undefined risk. A covered call has both defined theoretical gain and loss. Once the short call is closed, or expires worthless, the risk profile returns to that of long stock which has unlimited profit potential. The theoretical max gain is limited to the difference between the strike price and the cost basis of your stock, plus any premium collected for selling the call.

This occurs if the short call is assigned and you sell the stock at the strike price. The theoretical max loss is equal to the cost basis of your shares minus the premium collected.

Like any stock owner, you risk losing the entire value of the investment—except when you sell a covered call, you would keep the premium you received up front. The breakeven point at expiration is equal to the cost basis of your long stock minus the premium collected.

If the strike price of the call is below your cost basis, you could potentially sell your shares for a loss. Assuming you hold the underlying shares, no. Your short call would expire worthless, but your shares would experience a max loss. A covered call benefits if the underlying stock price rises, ideally right to the strike price of the short call.

In addition, if implied volatility drops your option will lose value, assuming all other factors remain constant. The closer your option is to expiration, the more extrinsic value it will lose. This is ideal for the short call. At some point, you must decide whether or not to buy back your short call, roll it, or hold it into expiration. Often traders will try to close or roll a short call during the week of expiration. You may not be able to keep the entire premium, but you can book a profit on the short call while eliminating the chance that your shares get called away.

The further the stock price rises, the deeper in-the-money your short call will be and the more it will offset your stock gains. If you want to exit the short call prior to expiration, you can buy to close, or roll it for a loss. If you do nothing, your shares will most likely be called away at the strike price. If the stock price drops, the call option will likely lose value which is good but your long stock will experience losses which is bad.

The more the stock drops, the less sensitive the short call will be to changes in the underlying stock price. At this point, your short call may have little to no value. If you want to exit the short call prior to expiration, you can buy to close it, or roll it. The delta of the long stock and short call are combined. Meanwhile, the values of gamma, theta, vega, and rho are limited to the short call. The Greeks of a covered call are:. Long stock has a positive delta equal to the amount of shares you own.

A short call has a negative delta and ranges from 0 to When you combine the two, the net delta of a covered call will always be net positive or flat. As the short call becomes more in-the-money it will approach a As the short call option becomes more out-of-the-money it will approach a 0. The gamma of the short call is negative. The theta of the short call is positive. The vega of the short call is negative. The rho of the short call is negative.

Although the strategy is designed to reach max profit at expiration, you might consider closing it before then in order to avoid the risk of going through exercise and assignment. To close a covered call you can exit the position in the following ways, which are described in the following section. Prior to expiration, you can buy to close your short call. Remember, these scenarios only account for the short call.

The total profit or loss of the stock position is a separate calculation. To close your stock position, you must buy to close the option first, and then sell your shares using a separate transaction. This allows you to establish a similar covered call position, while managing your risk prior to expiration. This is a common way to maintain your long stock position while trying to avoid assignment on your short call.

If the option expires out-of-the-money it will likely expire worthless and be removed from your account. For covered calls, be cautious of an early assignment or an upcoming dividend.

This typically occurs when the stock is well above the strike price of the call, and there is little to no extrinsic value left in the option. Learn more about early assignments. Your shares will be sold and you will not receive the dividend. This typically happens when the call option is deep in-the-money and has little extrinsic value left.

You can try to avoid this by buying back your short call before the end of the regular hours trading session the day before the ex-dividend date. Learn more about dividend risk. A long put is a bearish strategy that involves buying a put option. At Robinhood, you must own shares of the underlying for each put contract you exercise. Rather than exercising, many traders buy a put option with the intention to sell it later for a profit, before expiration. A long put is bearish. Many traders buy puts to speculate on the underlying price falling.

If you already own shares of the underlying, you might buy a put as a form of protection against stock losses. However, a protective put is a slightly different strategy. This article focuses primarily on a long put and assumes you do not own the underlying shares.

To buy a put, pick an underlying stock or ETF, select an expiration date, and choose a strike price. When buying a put, the closer your order price is to the ask price, the more likely your order will be filled. A long put is typically used to speculate on the future direction of the underlying stock. When you buy a put, you want the price of the underlying to fall quickly and implied volatility to rise. As a result, the value of your put option may rise as well.

This creates potential opportunities to sell your put for a profit before expiration. Look for an underlying stock or ETF whose price is trending down or likely to decrease soon. Choose an expiration date that aligns with your expectation for when the underlying price will decrease.

Technically, you can choose any available expiration date, but generally the textbook approach is to buy a put with about 90 days until expiration. This provides more time for the underlying price to potentially fall while balancing costs and mitigating losses from time decay, which accelerate as expiration approaches.

Shorter-dated puts are cheaper, but will be more impacted by time decay, while longer-dated puts are more expensive and more sensitive to changes in implied volatility. Although shorting stock and buying a put are both bearish strategies, they have many differences:. Shorting stock involves borrowing shares from your broker and selling them short whereas a put option is a contract that represents the right to sell shares of the underlying stock or ETF.

A short stock position has undefined risk , whereas the max theoretical loss of a long put is limited to the premium paid. When you short a stock, you can maintain your short position unless your broker calls in your shares. A long put has limited theoretical profit and loss. At expiration, it profits if the underlying stock is trading below the breakeven price.

The theoretical max gain is large, but limited. If the underlying is trading at or above the strike price of your long put at expiration, the option will expire worthless. The breakeven point at expiration is equal to the strike price minus the premium paid for the option.

Short stock has undefined risk, and it's possible to lose more than the premium you paid for the put option. This may be unlikely, but is always possible. A long put benefits if the underlying stock price drops quickly, ideally below the strike price. In addition, if implied volatility rises your option should increase in value, assuming all other factors remain constant. Meanwhile, if the underlying stock price rises, implied volatility falls, and time passes, the value of your put will likely decrease.

Ultimately, the value of your option will only be worth its intrinsic value in-the-money amount at expiration. Of course, this may be offset by any further drops in the underlying stock price.

If the put is worth less than your original purchase price you can attempt to cut your losses and sell it before expiration. The Greeks of a long put are:. Delta is negative. As the put option becomes more in-the-money it will approach a Rho is negative. Although you have the right to exercise your option and sell shares of the underlying stock, typically, this is not how many traders close a long put.

Instead, you might consider selling your put before expiration to avoid the exercise process, and any additional risk that it may introduce. To close a long put you can do the following that's described in this section:.

Prior to expiration, you can try to sell your long put. When you own a put, you have the right to sell shares of the underlying stock or ETF at the strike price by expiration assuming you already own the underlying shares. To reduce your margin interest. Interest rates are an important factor in determining whether or not to exercise a put option early. While there is no hard or fast rule, you may choose to exercise a deep in-the-money put to reduce your margin interest assuming you bought the stock or ETF on margin.

When you sell shares, you reduce your margin balance. If you cannot sell your put option for at least its intrinsic value, you can exercise the option and offset it with the necessary purchase of shares to close the resulting short stock position.

Finally, do not exercise an out-of-the-money put option. Learn more about expiration, exercise, and assignment. If the option expires out-of-the-money , it will expire worthless and be removed from your account.

If the option expires in-the-money , it will be automatically exercised. To implement a DNE request, you can submit it after 4 PM ET, and we must receive it by no later than 5 PM ET on the expiration date.

For a long put, be cautious of automatic exercise. As mentioned, if your option is in-the-money at expiration, your long put will automatically be exercised. A short put is a bullish strategy that involves selling a put option. If assigned , selling a put obligates you to buy shares of the underlying stock or ETF, at the strike price by the expiration date.

As the seller, you have no control whether or not your put is assigned—the buyer decides whether or not to exercise the option. At Robinhood, you must have enough buying power to purchase shares of the underlying stock for each put you sell. This is a cash-secured put because the potential purchase of shares is secured by cash in your account.

Although you receive a cash credit at the outset, your potential profit or loss is not realized until the position is closed. A short put is a bullish strategy. You might consider using it when you expect the price of the underlying stock to increase moderately before a certain date. Many options traders sell a put as a way to acquire stock. Although it may not be your primary goal, you could end up purchasing shares of the underlying at the strike price.

If that feels too risky, a short put may not be the right strategy for you. If the stock begins to drop below your short strike, you can mitigate assignment risk by buying back the short put, but this is typically done at a loss.

Start by picking an underlying stock or ETF, select an expiration date, and choose a strike price. Typically, a short put is opened by selling an out-of-the-money option. When selling a put, the closer your order price is to the bid price, the more likely your order will be filled.

A short put is commonly used to generate income. When selling a put you want the option to decrease in value. This happens when the underlying stock price rises, time passes, and implied volatility drops. As with most short option strategies, the goal is to sell high and buy low. Prior to expiration, if the option is worth less than your original selling price, you can attempt to close it for a profit. In exchange, you collect a credit for selling the put.

When selling puts, traders will most often look at options expiring in days. When selecting a strike price, the most common approach is to sell an out-of-the-money option. Out-of-the-money puts are when the strike price is lower than the underlying stock price. If you choose an expiration date that is further out, it may be advisable to sell an option that is further out-of-the-money, providing more room for the stock to fall given the extended time frame.

An in-the-money put is when the strike price is higher than the underlying stock price. Often, traders will decide how much premium to collect by using a measurement called return on capital.

Return on capital is calculated by taking the premium you collect and dividing it by the amount of collateral required to place the trade.

Remember, short puts can be a capital intensive strategy and smaller account sizes may not be able to use it. While both of these strategies are bullish, they have many differences:. A long call gives you the right, but not the obligation to buy shares at the strike price. You pay the options premium to purchase a call, but collect the options premium to sell a put.

A short put typically requires more cash collateral to sell compared to the amount of cash required to purchase a call option. A long call is negatively impacted by time decay, whereas a short put benefits from it. A short put typically has a higher theoretical probability of success than a long call. A short put has both defined theoretical profit and loss. The theoretical max gain is limited to credit received. This occurs if the underlying is trading at or above the strike price of at expiration.

The theoretical max loss is large, but limited. The breakeven point at expiration is equal to the strike price minus the premium collected. In this scenario, the potential max loss is the same as the theoretical max loss of the short put. A short put benefits if the underlying stock price rises quickly, and ideally stays above the strike price of your put option. In addition, if implied volatility drops your option will likely lose value, assuming all other factors remain constant.

At some point, you must decide whether or not to buy back your option, roll it, or hold it into expiration. The longer you wait, the more chances the stock has to fall. You may not be able to keep the entire premium, but you can book a profit while reducing your risk. Meanwhile, if the stock price drops and implied volatility rises, the put option will likely gain in value. In this scenario, your position might take on losses.

The Greeks of a short put are:. As the put option becomes more in-the-money it will approach a 1. As the put option becomes more out-of-the-money it will approach a 0. Gamma is negative. Theta is positive. Vega is negative. Although the strategy is designed to reach max profit at expiration, you might consider closing it before then in order to free up capital and avoid the risk of going through exercise and assignment. To close a short put you can do the following that's described in this section:.

Prior to expiration, you can try to buy back your short put. If the option expires out-of-the-money , it will typically expire worthless and be removed from your account. When selling a put, be cautious of an early assignment.

Typically, this occurs when the stock is far below the strike price, and the option has little to no extrinsic value left.

A long straddle is a two-legged, volatility strategy that involves simultaneously buying a call and put with the same strike prices.

Both options have the same expiration date and are on the same underlying stock or ETF. Typically, both options are at-the-money.

A long straddle is a premium buying strategy. Like most long premium strategies, the goal of buying a straddle is to sell it later, hopefully for a profit. Although a straddle is designed to profit if the underlying stock moves up or down, buying one can be costly and it has a lower theoretical probability of success than buying a single call or put.

A long straddle is a volatility strategy. Also, a long straddle benefits from an increase in implied volatility. Since buying a straddle can be expensive, traders often buy them with shorter-dated options in anticipation of an upcoming event, like an earnings announcement. To buy a straddle, pick an underlying stock or ETF, select an expiration date, and choose a call and a put. Almost always, both strikes are at-the-money. Straddles are traded simultaneously using a multi-leg order.

A multi-leg order is a combination of individual orders, known as legs. The combined order is sent and both legs must be executed simultaneously on one exchange. You can also leg into the strategy by opening one leg first and the other later using individual orders. This is a more complicated approach and carries certain risks. The net price of the straddle is a combination of the two individual options.

When buying a straddle, the closer your order price is to the natural ask price, the more likely your order will be filled. Due to the nature of multi-leg pricing, many traders will work their orders , trying to get filled closer to the mid or mark price halfway between the bid and ask prices of the spread.

A long straddle is typically used to speculate on the future volatility of the underlying stock and has no directional bias. Instead, you want the underlying stock or ETF to make a large move up or down.

If this happens, one option will likely increase in value, while the other typically decreases. This creates potential opportunities to sell the straddle for a profit before expiration. If the market anticipates either higher or lower volatility, the cost of options will also be higher or lower. Put another way, the underlying stock must be more volatile than what the market was expecting.

And since a straddle is commonly constructed with at-the-money options, the magnitude of the move may need to be substantial. As a result, you pay two premiums.

Consider one on the lower end of its implied volatility range, with potential to increase over the life of the trade. Choose an expiration date that aligns with your expectation for when the underlying price will move. Shorter-dated straddles are cheaper and more commonly used to trade an upcoming event, like earnings. However, time decay will come out of the options almost immediately after the event occurs, potentially resulting in an implied volatility crush IV crush.

Meanwhile, medium- and longer-dated straddles are more expensive but have a longer timeframe for the underlying stock to potentially move while mitigating losses from time decay, which accelerate as the expiration approaches. Straddles are typically created by using the at-the-money strike price. This means the put and call strike will be identical and closest to the current stock price.

The total premium paid and how many straddles you purchase determines your risk. Although long straddles and long strangles are both volatility strategies, there are major differences between the two:. A straddle consists of a call and put with the same strike price, whereas a strangle consists of a call and put with different strike prices.

A straddle typically uses at-the-money options, whereas a strangle typically uses out-of-the-money options. The value of a straddle is more reactive to price changes of the underlying stock compared to a strangle. This means the same price change of the underlying will typically cause the straddle to gain or lose more value than a strangle. A straddle is typically more expensive than a strangle but has a higher probability of success.

Because the two options of a straddle share the same strike price, more often than not, one option will have value at expiration while the other will expire worthless. Meanwhile, both options of a strangle can and often do expire worthless. Straddles are less sensitive to time decay and will hold a larger percentage of their value throughout equal time periods, assuming all other factors remain constant. At expiration it profits if the underlying stock is trading above the upper breakeven price or below the lower breakeven price at expiration.

The theoretical max gain is unlimited, because it contains a long call. The theoretical max loss is limited to the total premium paid for the straddle. If the underlying stock is trading exactly at the strike price of your straddle at expiration, both options will be out-of-the-money and expire worthless. At expiration, a straddle has two breakeven points—one above the strike price of the straddle, and one below.

To calculate the upside breakeven, add the total premium paid to the strike price of the long call. The following lists the options expiring in 60 days. The options shaded in green are in-the-money, the ones shaded in white are out-of-the-money. In this scenario, both options would be out-of-the-money and expire worthless. Remember, there are two breakeven prices at expiration for a straddle.

A long straddle benefits if the underlying stock price rises or falls sharply and quickly. In addition, if implied volatility rises, both options will likely increase in value if all other factors remain constant. Around days to expiration, time decay begins to accelerate and the closer your straddle is to expiration, the more extrinsic value each option will lose each day.

Ultimately, the value of the call or put will only be worth its intrinsic value the in-the-money amount at expiration. If the combined position is profitable, consider taking action before expiration. The longer you wait, the more extrinsic value will come out of both options. Of course, this may be offset by any movement in the underlying stock price. Meanwhile, a decreasing implied volatility and a stable, sideways moving stock price will hurt the value of your straddle.

If the position is worth less than your original purchase price, you can attempt to cut your losses and close it before expiration. A long straddle contains both a long call and put. The Greeks are netted to arrive at a net delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho for the combined position. When the trade is established, the straddle is delta and rho neutral.

It has a negative theta , a positive gamma , and a positive vega. Over time, these can change as the underlying stock moves up or down. If implied volatility increases, vega will likely increase the value of both options.

As time goes by, theta will reduce the value of both options. Bottom line, this strategy is about movement—you want the underlying stock to make a large move in either direction before time decay kicks in. Meanwhile, a spike in implied volatility will likely benefit both options. All Greek values assume all other factors remain equal. Although you have the right to exercise either of your options, typically, this is not how many traders close a long straddle.

Instead, you might consider selling your straddle before expiration to avoid the exercise process and any additional risk that it may introduce. You can do the following to close a long straddle:. To close your position, take the opposite actions that you took to open it. For a long straddle, this involves simultaneously selling-to-close both the long call and long put. Some traders prefer to leg out of a straddle. You can do this by selling one option, and then selling the other option later, using separate orders.

This approach includes both benefits and risks. You can do this to help mitigate liquidity concerns or change the structure of your strategy. When you own a straddle, you have the right to buy or sell shares of the underlying asset at the strike price by expiration assuming you have the required buying power to exercise the call or necessary shares to exercise the put.

For this reason, it rarely makes sense to exercise a call or put option prior to expiration. However, there are some scenarios where exercising early could make sense, including:. Remember, shareholders receive dividends, options holders do not.

If your call option is in-the-money, and the remaining extrinsic value is less than the upcoming dividend, it could make sense to exercise the call of your straddle prior to the ex-dividend date. If you cannot sell to close your call or put option for at least its intrinsic value the in-the-money amount , you can exercise the option and offset it with the necessary sale or purchase of shares to close the resulting long or short underlying stock position.

Interest rates are an important factor in determining whether or not to early exercise a put option. Finally, do not exercise an out-of-the-money option. If both options expire out-of-the-money , both options will expire worthless and be removed from your account. If one option expires in-the-money , and the other expires out-of-the-money, one of your options will be automatically exercised. The other option will expire worthless and be removed from your account.

If you do not have the necessary buying power or shares to support the exercise, Robinhood may attempt to place a Do Not Exercise DNE request on your behalf. For a long straddle, be cautious of automatic exercise. Important : To help mitigate these risks, Robinhood may close your position prior to market close on the expiration date; however, this is done on a best-effort basis.

Ultimately, you are fully responsible for managing the risk within your account.

Robinhood empowers you to place your first options trade directly from your app. You can learn about different options trading strategies by checking out Basic Options Strategies Level 2 and Advanced Options Strategies Level 3. There are many things to consider when choosing an option:.

The expiration date is displayed just below the strategy and underlying security. You can scroll right to see expirations further into the future. The strike prices are listed high to low; and you can scroll up or down to see different strike prices. The premium price and percent change are listed on the right of the screen. The break-even point is where the underlying security needs to trade at expiration for you to break even on your investment, taking into account the current value premium of the option.

The break-even percentage is the percentage change the underlying security would need to move for you to break even on the option at expiration. Numerous factors that are not reducible to a model determine the actual chance of profit for a particular option contract or strategy. You can place Good-Til-Canceled GTC or Good-For-Day GFD orders on options.

There are two different ways to display the price and determine the theoretical value of an options contract: natural price and mark price. your portfolio return. Each brokerage has the discretion to set the specific parameters for their customers. Just like stock or ETF trading, buying and selling or selling and buying the same options contract on the same day will result in a day trade. If you have a cash account, you are not subject to pattern day trading restrictions, but you cannot access certain features, like Instant Deposits and trading with unsettled funds.

Options trading entails significant risk and is not appropriate for all investors. Certain complex options strategies carry additional risk. Robinhood Financial does not guarantee favorable investment outcomes and there is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing. To learn more about the risks associated with options, please read the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options before you begin trading options.

Supporting documentation for any claims, if applicable, will be furnished upon request. Please also be aware of the risks listed in the following documents: Day Trading Risk Disclosure Statement and FINRA Investor Information. Getting Started. My account and login.

Investing with Options. Options Knowledge Center. Basic options strategies Level 2. Advanced options strategies Level 3. Placing an options trade. Expiration, Exercise, and Assignment. Limit Order - Options.

Stop Limit Order - Options. Fill likelihood. Options Collateral. How Corporate Actions Affect Your Options. Options Alerts. Options rolling. General questions. IPO Access. Information and Labels. Placing an options trade in app. Things to consider when choosing an option. There are many things to consider when choosing an option: The expiration date is displayed just below the strategy and underlying security.

Good-Til-Canceled versus Good-For-Day orders. Natural price versus mark price. Still have questions? Contact Robinhood Support.

This creates potential opportunities to sell the straddle for a profit before expiration. However, there are tradeoffs to buying a call instead of shares of the underlying stock. Important : To help mitigate these risks, Robinhood may close your position prior to market close on the expiration date; however, this is done on a best-effort basis. Meanwhile, a short straddle is negatively affected when the implied volatility increases and the stock price becomes volatile. The vega of the short call is negative. Managing the trade A long call benefits if the underlying stock price rises quickly, ideally above the strike price. However, if you ever plan on buying a strangle, understanding the other side of your trade can provide insight into the long side of the strategy.

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