Learning Greek
Gamma as a thing has been around since traders began to use options to hedge, speculate, and mitigate risk. But it was not until the shiny Black-Scholes model emerged in the '70s that anyone knew what to call it. Bluntly, gamma is the first derivative of the option delta and describes the sensitivity of the delta in relation to price movements of the underlying security. A flip is the transition from a prior (in this case positive) state, to its opposite (now negative) state. For many that's hardly an eloquent answer, nor even a particularly explanatory one. Of course, there is a far easier way of describing gamma (and the potential flip it implies), but to reveal it would rob derivatives experts of their inordinately rotund paycheques… Luckily for you, nobody is paying me to be pretentious anymore.
Selling Options
The majority of investors own equities. Only a few short them to make a living. Pension funds, asset managers, or family offices sit on large equity holdings producing (apart from anxiety) dividends. And that's pretty much it. But there is a way to squeeze some additional returns out of your existing positions: namely, selling call options above the current market level. The logic, especially after a long bull market, goes as follows.

0 Comments