Of all the deep mysteries on Wall Street, put and call options have long been among the most baffling to investors. Many market players shy away from the options, consider them as risky as a crap game. But that is just not so, says jaunty, white-haired Herbert Filer, 65, head of Filer, Schmidt & Co., the nation's largest stock option dealer. This week, in Understanding Put and Call Options (Crown; $3), the first book on the business to be published in the U.S., Filer presents a case for using options to reduce stock market risks as well as for speculating.
In today's market, where 90% in cash must be put up to buy stocks, put and call options have a new allure. They enable speculators to maintain a position in stocks for as little as 5% of the stock's market value at the time of purchase. This year such options will account for trading of about 8,000,000 shares, nearly 1% of all the shares traded on the N.Y. Stock Exchange annually.
Call options are most popular with bulls, who think the market will rise. A call is a negotiable contract giving the purchaser the right to buy stock, usually in 100 share lots, any time during a specified period running from 21 days to a year or more. For example, last June Filer sold a six-month, ten-day call on American Motors for $625. This gave the purchaser the right to buy 100 shares of American Motors at 37⅛ at any time before the option expires on Dec. 7. With American Motors now selling around 80, there is already a profit of more than $3,500 on the call. Calls for six months and ten days or longer are the most popular because any profit on a call of that length is a long-term capital gain, taxable at a maximum of 25%.
A put, the opposite of a call, is favored by bearish speculators. The put is an option giving the purchaser the right to sell 100 shares of stock at a set price at a future date. Last June, Filer sold a put option on Boeing Airplane Co. giving the buyer the right to sell 100 shares at 37⅝ by Dec. 2. Boeing is now quoted around 30, but the buyer of the put can still exercise it at 37⅝. After deducting the $400 costs for the put and commissions, the purchaser has a profit of about $300.
The purchaser loses when the stock does not move enough to cover the costs of the put or call, or when it moves the wrong way. Then the buyer loses the amount he paid for the option. While puts and calls are primarily used for speculating, they are also being used more to limit losses, protect paper profits, and for tax advantages. Primarily, they are for the stock market sophisticate who can afford to lose the premiums he must pay to speculate.