Interesting IWM Put and Call Options for January 2023
Investors in iShares Trust – iShares Russell 2000 ETF (Symbol: IWM) saw new options become available today, for January 2023 expiry. At Stock Options Channel, our YieldBoost formula looked top to bottom across the channel Options IWM for New Contracts January 2023 and identified one put contract and one call contract of particular interest.
The put contract at the strike price of $171.00 has a current bid of $2.08. If an investor were to sell to open this put contract, they agree to buy the stock at $171.00, but will also collect the premium, placing the cost base of the stock at $168.92 (before brokerage commissions ). For an investor already interested in buying shares of IWM, this could represent an attractive alternative to paying $172.09/share today.
Since the strike price of $171.00 represents a discount of approximately 1% from the current stock price (in other words, it is out of play by that percentage), it is also possible that the contract of sale expires worthless. Current analytical data (including Greeks and implied Greeks) suggests that the current chance of this happening is 99%. Stock Options Channel will track these odds over time to see how they change, by posting a table of these numbers on our website under the contract detail page for that contract. If the contract expires worthless, the premium would represent a return of 1.22% on the cash commitment, or 37.00% annualized – at Stock Options Channel, we call this the Yield increase.
Below is a chart showing the past twelve months trading history for iShares Trust – iShares Russell 2000 ETF, and highlighting in green where the strike price of $171.00 falls relative to that history. :
On the call side of the options chain, the call contract at the strike price of $173.00 has a current bid of $2.33. If an investor were to buy IWM stock at the current price level of $172.09/share and then sell to open this call contract as a “covered call”, they are committing to selling the stock at 173 $.00. Assuming that the call seller will also collect the premium, this would result in a total return (excluding dividends, if any) of 1.88% if the stock is called at the January 2023 expiry (before brokerage commissions). Of course, a lot of upside could potentially be left on the table if IWM shares really soar, which is why it becomes important to review the past twelve months trading history for iShares Trust – iShares Russell 2000 ETF , as well as study the fundamentals of the business. Below is a chart showing IWM’s trading history over the last twelve months, with the $173.00 strike highlighted in red:
Considering that the strike price of $173.00 represents a premium of approximately 1% to the current stock price (in other words, it is out of the price by that percentage), it It is also possible for the covered call contract to expire worthless, in which case the investor would keep both his shares and the premium collected. Current analytical data (including Greeks and implied Greeks) suggests that the current chance of this happening is 99%. On our website, under the contract detail page for that contract, the Stock Options Channel will track those odds over time to see how they change and publish a table of those numbers (the option contract’s trading history will be also plotted). If the covered call expires worthless, the premium would represent a 1.35% increase in incremental return to the investor, or 41.18% annualized, what we call the Yield increase.
Meanwhile, we calculate that the actual volatility for the last twelve months (considering the closing values of the last 252 trading days as well as the current price of $172.09) is 28%. For more put and call options contract ideas worth considering, visit StockOptionsChannel.com.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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