Option Buyer v/s Option Writer

An Option Buyer is someone who buys an option from sellers/ writer. The buyer of an option pays a premium and buys the right of that particular option but is not obliged to writer to exercise the option.

Buyer of an option has limited risk up to the premium paid, and theoretically it can earn unlimited reward if stock/index moves significantly higher (in case of call) and lower (in case of put). The biggest risk is of time decay and drop in volatility. If market remains range bound or near expiry, premium will erode faster due to time decay factor, which will result into negligible profit or may turn into losses.

Options should be bought only when you are confident that stock/index will move significantly either side because if stock/index remains range bound, the premium of both At-The-Money and Out-The-Money options will decrease and become zero till expiry. Advance traders can also buy options if they expect volatility to shoot up.

An Option Writer is someone who sells an option but without holding any long positions, it is like short selling the stock/index. The option writer receives premium and has the obligation to keep the agreement if buyer of an option exercises his rights. Writer of an option has a higher probability of making money compared to an option buyer. Option writers primarily trade on time decay and volatility, while market movement is secondary factor. Following are the two scenarios where option writers can initiate positions:

If he expects stock/index to trade sideways and volatility is expected to go down.

If he expects stock/index to move higher (if a put option) or lower (if a call option).

	Option Buyer	Option Writer
Risk	Buyer of an option has limited risk (to the extent premium paid)	An Option writer has unlimited risk
Reward	Option buyer has unlimited profit potential	Option writer has limited profit potential (to the extent premium received)
Reward to risk ratio	Option buyer has high reward to risk ratio	Option writer has low reward to risk ratio
Probability	Probability for option buyer of making money will be 33%	Probability for option writer of making money will be 67%
Rights/obligation	Option buyer has right but not an obligation to exercise the option	Option writer has obligation but doesn’t have a right to exercise the option
Margin requirement	Option buyer pays premium to buy options	Option writer has to pay margin money, which will be same as futures (as risk is unlimited like futures).
Time Decay	Time decay works against an option buyer	Time decay works in favour of an option seller
Breakeven	Breakeven is the point where option buyer starts to make money.	It is the exact same point at which option writer starts to lose money.

Following is the payoff table of Option buyer (Long Put Strategy)

Current Nifty Price	Rs 8200
Strike price	Rs 8200
Buy Price	Rs 60
BEP (strike Price - Premium paid)	Rs 8140
Lot size (in units)	75

 

On Expiry Nifty Closes at	Net Payoff from Long put option
7800	340
7900	240
8000	140
8100	40
8140	0
8200	-60
8300	-60
8400	-60

Following is the payoff table of Option Writer (Short put strategy)

Current Nifty Price	Rs 8300
Strike price	Rs 8200
Selling Price	Rs 80
BEP (strike Price - Premium received)	Rs 8120
Lot size (in units)	75

 

On Expiry Nifty Closes at	Net Payoff from sell put option
7800	-320
7900	-220
8000	-120
8100	-20
8200	0
8300	80
8400	80
8500	80

Piece of Advice:

Investors, who have a low risk appetite, should stick to basic strategy like option buying, whereas option writing should only be used by sophisticated investors as risk involved in writing of an option is higher compare to reward.