Long strangle Concept Explanation

Long Strangle Explained Like a House – 3 Cases – Easy Read

Long Strangle concept explanation, profiting from upcoming market moving news.

You have an opinion on the property market in a particular area.

There is a chance of a government announcement about cutting the interest rate on property loan.

You expect the property prices to rise a lot if the interest rate on property loans gets cut.

At the same time, you are not sure that the government will lower the interest rate instead you think there is a chancethat they might increase the interest rate on property loan.

Higher interest rate will make the monthly payments higher leading to decrease in property prices.

We can use a long strangle to take advantage of the expected high price movement in the property prices.

Technical explanation, we will simplify it right after this:

A strangle is an options strategy where the investor holds a position in both a call and a put option with different strike prices, but with the same expiration date and underlying asset.

A strangle is a good strategy if you think the underlying security will experience a large price movement in the near future but are unsure of the direction. However, it is profitable mainly if the asset does swing sharply in price.

Source: Investopedia

Understandable explanation of Long Strangle:

Your view:

  • The decision on home interest rates by the government is to be announced tomorrow.
  • It is expected that the house prices will move up or down a lot based on the above decision.
  • The house prices are published in the newspaper.
  • We want to make money on this high movement of house prices, while not taking too much risk.

Long strangle example begin

Let us make some assumptions here:

Let us make some assumptions:

  • Current price of the house: 1,000
  • For a period of 30 days, we can buy insurance on the house price even if we don’t own it.
  • We buy insurance: Insured amount: 900, Insurance premium: 40
  • We can pay rent to the house owner with a condition he sell us the house if price(printed in newspaper) is above a particular price after 30 days.
  • We pay the Rent amount: 50, agreed that if house price is above 1,100 the owner sells you the house for 1,100 at the end of 30 days.

We have now setup a Long Strangle.

What exactly are we doing in terms of shares:

  • Buying a Call option
    • Strike Price: 1,100
    • Premium Paid: 50 per share
  • Buying a Put option (Insurance)
    • Strike Price: 900
    • Premium Paid: 40 per share
  • You don’t need the house owners(share owners) permission to buy the house(shares) at 1,100 in this scenario the market regulators facilitate this.
  • The insurance is available in the market and market regulators facilitate this.

What happens at the end of the month(30 days):

Calculate PL of Long Strangle strategy

Case 1: House/Share price is 1,000
House Price
(Share Price)
Purchase Price: Rent Paid Insured Amount: Insurance Premium Paid Profit/Loss
1,000 No Purchase 50 900 40 -90
Price of house at the end of the month Price did not go above 1000, we did not purchase the house Rent paid by us to house owner. Insured amount, if price goes below this price the insurance company will pay us the difference Insurance premium paid for Insurance -Rent Paid – Premium Paid = -50 – 40 = -90

The price is at 1,000, we tell the house owner to keep the rent.

The price is at 1,000. The insurance company keeps the premium.

This will remain true when price is between 900 and 1100. This is also our maximum loss in Long Strangle

Case 2: Break Even: House/Share price is 810
House Price
(Share Price)
Purchase Price: Rent Paid Insured Amount: Insurance Premium Paid Profit/Loss
810 No Purchase 50 900 40 0
Price of house at the end of the month Price is below 1,100,we tell the house owner to keep the rent. Rent paid by us to house owner. Insured amount, if price goes below this price the insurance company will pay us the difference Insurance premium paid for Insurance Insured Amount – Market Price – Rent Paid – Premium Paid = 900 – 810 – 50 – 40 = 0

We have insurance for price going below 900.

Price is below our Insured price, insurance company pays us.

The house owner keeps the rent.

The insurance company keeps the premium

To break even in Long Strangle we need the price to move below our insured price or purchase price by Rent paid + Insurance Premium Paid

Case 3: Profit: House/Share price is 700
House Price
(Share Price)
Purchase Price: Rent Paid Insured Amount: Insurance Premium Paid Profit/Loss
700 No Purchase 50 900 40 +110
Price of house at the end of the month Price is not above 1100, we did not purchase the house Rent paid by us to house owner. Insured amount, if price goes below this price the insurance company will pay us the difference Insurance premium paid for Insurance Insured Price – Market Price – Rent Paid – Premium Paid = 900 – 700 – 50 – 40 = +110

The price we insured(900).

The price is below our Insured value, the insurance company has to pay us the difference:Insured Price – Market Price = 200

The house owner keeps the rent.

The insurance company keeps the premium.

The profit will keep increasing as the price keeps going down beyond:
Insured amount – rent – premium paid = 810
Or up beyond:
Agreed Purchase Price + rent + premium paid = 1190

Level up! Now we know a long strangle better.

Maximum loss in above example is -90.

Maximum loss in a long strangle is
the sum of rent paid to house owner and the insurance premium paid.

In stock market terms:

Maximum Loss in a long strangle is
sum of Premium Paid to buy the call and the premium paid to buy the put.

Maximum profit in the above example is: Unlimited

We can generalise the maximum profit a Long Stradngle:

Maximum Profit in a Long Strangle is unlimited after the price crosses the sum of rent paid and insurance premium paid in down direction beyond our insured price or in up direction beyond our agreed purchase price. Note: If price is falling there is a limit to profit i.e. house price = 0

In stock market terms:

Maximum Profit in a long strangle is unlimited depending on price rise/fall beyond breakeven point which is the sum of premium paid to buy call and put beyond the strike price in up or down direction respectively.

The above scenario is only for demonstration, the changes of finding such a high risk reward ratio are extremely low.

Insuring your stocks is a good practice. Concept explanation click here

What are futures and options? Concept explanation click here

Covered Calls explanation using a house. Concept explanation click here

All information here is for educational/research purposes only, we do not recommend trading.

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