Comment by twic

Comment by twic 3 days ago

Right, but the price of the put is much less than the price of the stock, and the price of the put is the denominator.

Right now, Walmart is at $91.34, and you can buy a put at $88 expiring on 24th January for $0.18 [1]. If you buy one, and the stock goes to zero by then, you spent $0.18 and gained $88, a 488x return. January 2026 at $86.67 is $5.35 - a mere 16x return.

[1] https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/wmt/option-cha...

NickC25 3 days ago

You'd spend $0.18 per share, yes, but the option's price is $18, not $0.18. So your return would be roughly 4.1x, not 488x. Remember options contracts are counted in hundreds, so $0.18 is the price per share, not per contract.

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twic 2 days ago

If you're going to work it out per options contract, then you spend $18, and get to sell 100 shares at $88. 100 * $88 / $18 is still 488x.
(This number is large because Walmart is not going to go bust in the next few days! It serves to illustrate the arithmetic, but maybe it's not the most realistic example.)

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