Selling a put means selling someone the right but not the obligation to have you buy 100 shares of a company at a specific price before an agreed upon date. Buying calls and puts are pretty routine but do you know how to sell a put? The great thing about options are the fact that they give you options.

Options can be overwhelming and even scary to new stock market traders. However, when you take the time to learn stock training, then it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

Options give you the right but not the obligation to buy and sell stocks at a certain price within a certain time. One contract controls 100 shares. As a result, they’re cheaper than trading stocks.

You’re paying the premium to control stocks without actually having to own them. However, you can use options trading to, in fact, end up with the actual shares at the price you bought the premium for.

A stock option can be used to hedge and for speculation. They have many uses, such as the ability to sell a put, which makes them appealing to new and seasoned traders alike.

Buying vs Selling

Buying puts are what most traders are familiar with; especially new traders. It’s a great alternative to short selling. There are a lot of brokers without great short selling ability.

Hence the attractiveness of options. Buying a put takes the short position. You believe that the stock is going to go down in price. You sell the put for a profit once price has fallen.

If price rises instead, then you take a loss. In other words, buying puts allows you to take a short position. Again, because of the inexpensiveness of options, you can short the large cap stocks.

Don’t forget you control 100 shares. That adds up and can be quite lucrative. Why would you sell a put?

When selling a put, you’re actually taking the bullish side of the trade. That might sound confusing since puts are seen as bearish. However, when you sell a put, you’re wanting price to go up.

Why? Because you want to make money. Selling a put is the opposite of buying. As a result, selling takes the bullish side. 

Why Should I Sell a Put?

Does knowing how to sell a put benefit traders in any way? The answer is yes. It offers some unique opportunities.

For example, when you sell a put, you’re actually gaining bullish exposure and the ability to own the shares at well below market value.

In other words, you can sell a put and end up buying the actual shares at a less expensive price. That may sound a little crazy or even like a scam.

However, it’s not. It’s the reason people will spend money on options trading services and courses. You can protect yourself in a crazy market. However, option are risky.

There are many moving parts like time decay, implied volatility and open interest. All of that, plus more, has an affect on the profit and loss of options. Hence strategies like selling a put option.

It’s important to remember that you’d have to assume the obligation to buy the shares if the buyer decides to sell their position. Make sure you have the money in your account should that happen.

Remember however, that the majority of options expire worthless. So it’s very rare that you’d actually be on the hook for buying the shares.

Practice in a Simulated Account

Since options have so many moving parts to them, you’re going to want to practice trading them in a simulated account. ThinkorSwim by TD Ameritrade is one of our favorites.

With a paper trading account, you can place hundreds pf practice trades before using real money. As a result, you’re able to work out the kinks and see what options trading entails.

Trading is emotional as well. As a result, practicing allows you to learn to control those emotions. However, we realize that once you go live, it’s a whole different animal.

Losing money when you’re practicing is much less risky than going full throttle right out of the gate. It protects you as well as you learn how to sell a put.

What to Look for When You Sell a Put

• You’re taking the bullish bias when you sell a put. As a result, you need to know when a stock is going to reverse from from downside.
• How can you find that out? By look at candlesticks, patterns along with support and resistance. If you want to sell your put option, look to sell when it can’t break support. 
• Once it heads back up to resistance, you’re in the green while someone else is in the red. That might sound harsh. However, that’s the nature of stock trading.
• The stock market is a battle of buyers and sellers. It’s what moves the market. Without that battle, there’s be no price action. Without price action, no one would make any money.
• Candlesticks are the foundation of trading. Without candlesticks, technical analysis means nothing. By themselves candlesticks tell a story. However, group them together and you’ve got patterns.
• These patterns coupled with technical analysis and support and resistance are going to give you a pretty clear picture about the type of trade you should be making.
• Remember that even the best traders fail 30-40% of the time. You may not hit it out of the park every time; but if trade the setups, you’ll do well.

The Bottom Line

When you sell a put, you’re taking a bullish bias on the trade. As a result, you’re doing the opposite of what you’re used to doing when buying calls and puts because you are short instead of long. That may take some time getting used to. Hence the need to practice in a paper trading account before you even dream about doing it live.

If you need more help, take our options trading course.