Once again, about "time decay"# Stock
j*b
1 楼
Time decay is kind of mystified here. It is not magic.
For example, people talk about shorting tna and tza at the same time. Lets
take a look at such a trade.
Imagine you short $10,000 worth of TNA and TZA both. So you need a fund of $
20,000. Imagine IWM first go down 3% and then up 3%. So TNA and TZA go up 9%
and down 9% in different order, and both becomes 99.19% of the original
value, and you pocket a profit of .81%, or $162.
Now imagine instead of doing the above trade, you buy $5400 worth of iwm
when it went down by 3%, then sell it when it went up 3%, you will pocket a
profit of about $162, with a fund of just $5400.
These two trades have the same profit because they basically did the
same. But then they are different.
The difference is not just $20,000 vs $5400. In the first trade, your
positions are much more dangerous. You may get margin call very quickly if
the market goes in one direction too much.
For example, people talk about shorting tna and tza at the same time. Lets
take a look at such a trade.
Imagine you short $10,000 worth of TNA and TZA both. So you need a fund of $
20,000. Imagine IWM first go down 3% and then up 3%. So TNA and TZA go up 9%
and down 9% in different order, and both becomes 99.19% of the original
value, and you pocket a profit of .81%, or $162.
Now imagine instead of doing the above trade, you buy $5400 worth of iwm
when it went down by 3%, then sell it when it went up 3%, you will pocket a
profit of about $162, with a fund of just $5400.
These two trades have the same profit because they basically did the
same. But then they are different.
The difference is not just $20,000 vs $5400. In the first trade, your
positions are much more dangerous. You may get margin call very quickly if
the market goes in one direction too much.