The out-of-the-money naked call strategy involves writing out-of-the-money call options without owning the underlying stock. It is a premium collection options strategy employed when one is neutral to mildly bearish on the underlying.
Sell 1 OTM Call
The main objective of writing naked calls is to collect the premiums when the options expire worthless. One would write an out-of-the-money naked call every month and if the stock price stays flat or drops, one would pocket the premiums and repeat the process as long as the perceived market condition remains unchanged.
Limited Profit Protential
Maximum gain is limited and is equal to the premium collected for selling the call options.
Premium Received - Commissions Paid
Profit achieved when: Price of Underlying <= Strike Price of Short Call
Unlimited Loss Potential
If the stock price goes up dramatically at expiration, the out-of-the-money naked call writer will be required to satisfy the options requirements to sell the obligated stock to the options holder at the lower strike price by buying the stock from the open market at the higher market price. Since there is no limit to how high the stock price can be at expiration, maximum potential losses for writing out-of-the-money naked calls is therefore theoretically unlimited.
Unlimited
Loss occurs when: Price of Underlying > Strike Price of Short Call + Premium Received
Loss = Price of Underlying - Strike Price of Short Call - Premium Received + Commissions Paid
Breakeven point
Strike Price of Short Call + Premium Received
Example
The stock XYZ is currently trading at $48. An options trader decides to writes a JUL 50 out-of-the-money naked call for $3. So he receives $300 for writing the call option.
On expiration date, the stock had rallied to $68. Since the striking price of $50 for the call option is lower than the current trading price, the call is assigned and the writer buys the shares for $6800 and sell it to the options holder at $5000, resulting in a loss of $1800. However, since he received $300 earlier on, his net loss is $1500.
However, what happens should the stock price had gone down 20 points to $28 instead? Let's take a look.
At $28, the call expires worthless and the writer of the naked call keeps the $300 in premiums received as profit.
From the profit graph above, we can see that the breakeven is at $53 (Call Strike + Premium). So long as the stock price remains at $53 or below, the naked call writer will not suffer any loss.
In-the-money Naked Call Write
A more bearish version of this strategy with a higher potential profit is to write deep-in-the-money naked calls.
Commissions
These examples exclude commissions and fees. Include all transaction costs when evaluating the profit or loss of a position.