A cash flow option technique that is used by both professional traders as well as retail traders is the Calendar Spread. This technique is a favorite among option traders who use options as a way to generate reliable monthly cash-flow.
The calendar spread is an option strategy that makes it’s money from the fact that options are an evaporation asset that loses it’s value over a period of time. decaying value. This is how the trade makes money. As expiration day approaches, the premium that was sold in the near month option loses it’s value – allowing the option trader to buy it back much cheaper than it was sold for.
These trades can be built from call options as well as put options. In order to create a calendar spread trade, the option trader sells a near month strike on an underlying vehicle – and then buys a later month at the identical strike. Profit can be made from this trade because what happens over time is that the time premium in the closer month option decays at a much faster speed than the later month option. What is left over at expiration day is the difference of the two – which is what gives the trader profit.
Here’s a sampling of a calendar spread position: Sell 10 April 35 put. Purchase 10 May 35 put.
While in this hypothetical example, the calendar position was made up of strikes on months that were right next to each other (April and May) – they don’t have to be built this way. You can use any combination of different months.
To prove this point, instead of using the December options in the trade example above, January could have been used. Or even February.
Usually this strategy is employed when the person trading it has a neutral outlook on the the vehicle being traded. These trades cal also be used in a more speculative way however – where the trader would place the calendar spread at the strike price he or she believes the underlying vehicle will be trading at on expiration day.
When you talk with some option traders, some will tell you they prefer the calendar spread strategy because they believe they are easier to manage than some of the other strategies like the iron condor, credit spread, or the butterfly spread. Regardless, the calendar spread is a great strategy to learn and have ready to use in your ‘option trading toolbox’.
Want to find out more about the Calendar Spread, then visit David Harms’s site on how to choose the best Credit Spread for your option income trading needs.