Options are on of our specialities. Most banks will ask for 100% coverage on an option position which defeats the purpose of an option. The coverage is evaluated on a daily basis. If you made profits trading or if the value of your positions has increased your buying power will automatically increase the next day.

Coverage required

Buying and selling options
Minimum account balance: $2.000
Couverture exigée: 100% de la valeur de l'option.

Writing options
Minimum account balance: $50.000
Couverture exigée: the highest of
# contrats x 100 x [(30% x share price) + option price + (share price – strike price)]
or
# contrats x 100 x [(15% x share price) + option price]

Spreads

A spread position consists of a combination of a long option position and a short option position. The options need to be of the same type (puts or calls). The strike price can be different but (a) the underlying needs to be identical, (b) the number of options needs to identical and, (c) the short option position needs to expire before the long option position.

Bear spread (credit spread)	Bull spread (debit spread)
Buy 1 put IBM 85 jan	Buy 1 call IBM 75 feb
Sell 1 put IBM 80 jan	Sell 1 call IBM 65 feb
Coverage = the smallest between	Coverage =
the margin on the short position	100% of the debit
or	or
the difference between the strike prices	minimum balance of $ 2.000

 

In total there are 6 U.S. options markets. Each option trades on several option often as many as all 6. The order book on the platform combines all orders on all options markets. The 'Trades' column indicates all executed orders for each options market. The Price / Size column gives a real-time overview of all executions in all markets. WH SelfInvest has direct lines to all the option markets. WH SelfInvest is not an options market maker. You have direct access to all options markets and you can route your order directly to the fastest markets or the market which offers you the best price. For orders consisting of 10 or more options this is a significant advantage. You can always get the best execution price and no market maker works your order.

 

The options calculator is based on the Black-Scholes formula. The tables contain the real-time prices of the options as well as other relevant values such as implied volatility, volume and the greeks. Traders can modify all variables in the Black-Scholes formula in order to simulate the evolution of the option price.