Summary
- A 10% haircut after losing 36% from highs makes Tesla more attractive.
- This article explains why $200 is attractive to us.
- Always be aware of your risks when dealing with options. Play safe.
Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) lost nearly 10% of its stock price recently after deliveries underwhelmed as Seeking Alpha has covered here. These are strange times for the stock market as companies that are worth a Trillion lose in oneday what most companies are not even worth in their lifetime. Keep in mind, Tesla lost nearly 10% on a day the market rebounded. If the recent sentiment prevails on Tesla (as we are betting), then the next few red days for the market will be much harder for Tesla longs. But, with such pain come opportunities for those who can stomach the wild rides.
The stock is rebounding a bit in premarket due to the general market mood and the news that Cathy Wood dipped into the sell-off. But we strongly believe the next few days will provide some juicy opportunities for those willing to sell cash-secured puts. Tesla's recent stock split makes these transactions a lot easier for retail investors. Before the recent 3:1 split, selling a single contract for 100 shares would have required three times the capital to be set aside. Let us use the chain below as an example and see how things look now post-split.
- Strike Price: $200
- Expiration Date: November 4th, 2022, exactly a month from today.
- Premium: $6/share, for a total of $600.
In simple words, the put seller collects $600 immediately to buy 100 shares of Tesla at $200 if the stock reaches $200 or below by November 4th, 2022. Bear in mind that time decay is in favor of the option seller, meaning as days go by, the option values decline.
What's the expected return and possible outcomes?
Return: The premium collected ($600) for setting aside $20,000 represents a 3% return for a month. This is a handy return anytime and even more so in the current market environment. At this time, the market assigns at 77.20% probability that Tesla remains above $200 by expiration on November 4th. To reiterate the impact of the recent stock split, the same transaction would have required $60,000 to be set aside as we'd have been talking about a $600 strike price. Granted, the premium returns would be higher (in dollar), but it is common sense that more investors can afford $20,000 compared to those who can afford $60,000.
Outcome #1: If Tesla stays above $200 by the expiration date, the option seller just retains the premium mentioned above. The option seller will not be obligated to buy the shares.
Outcome #2: If Tesla goes below $200 by the expiration date, the option seller will be forced to buy 100 shares at $200, irrespective of where the stock trades at that time. Keeping the premium netted in mind, the average cost, in this case, will be $194 ($200 minus $6).
Outcome #3: As an option seller, one can "buy to close" anytime instead of waiting till the expiration date. That may be appealing to those who have the time and patience to play short-dated options many times over. But we typically let the option expire before choosing another chain (or another stock).
Outcome #4: We will write in detail about this in a future article, but we wanted to mention this as many readers of the Amazon (AMZN) article pointed out. An option seller can always roll into future dated options. That is, instead of getting out of the game entirely by following one of the first three outcomes above, you can close the current option and initiate a new chain with a different strike/expiration/premium combination as a single transaction. There are risks and advantages to this as we plan to describe later.
Why $200 Looks attractive?
- Trend: Apart from being a nice round number, $200 is about 20% below the current market price, a bear market by itself by definition. That is on top of the 36% already lost from highs, making $200 more than 50% off from highs. In our view, that is a compelling enough pullback for a company that still has many growth avenues in front of it.
- Valuation: At $200, Tesla will be trading at a PEG ratio of less than 1. This is based on a forward multiple of 46 [$200 divided by forward EPS of $4.32] and the five year expected growth rate of 55%. As avid followers of Growth at Reasonable Price [GARP] would attest, a PEG of less than 1 makes a stock more attractive.
- Technical: From a technical standpoint, $200 has historically offered plenty of support to the stock. As shown in the chart below, the stock has bounced off from $200 level at least five times in the last two years.
Many ways to skin the cat
If the $200 strike price and the 3% premium return don't appeal to you and if you are looking for a higher premium return, consider strike price like the one below. In this example, the options seller agrees to buy 100 shares of Tesla at $220 should the stock reach that by November 4th, while collecting a premium of about $11 per share. That's a much higher return of 5% return in a month, but the risk the seller takes here is that the strike price is just 10% away from the current market price. One more day like yesterday, and you may be obligated to buy the shares. That is not necessarily a good or bad thing. It just depends on what your priority is.
Be aware of your risks and choices
Once again, please bear in mind that if your primary interest is in getting premiums, selling puts during down-trending markets may not be the best strategy. If the market blood bath continues, your stock may reach the strike price before you blink. However, if your interest is in acquiring the stock should things fall further, this is a wise strategy. The added income through premium does not hurt either. If you already hold at least 100 shares of Tesla, you may want to consider selling covered call if you understand that strategy. This article explains some basics of it.
Conclusion
Tesla is a volatile company. TSLA is a volatile stock. Tesla is led by a volatile man. And the market is volatile these days. That makes it a double-double-whammy. In such cases, we tend to prefer lower strike prices. If we do get assigned Tesla at the $200 strike price, we will be glad to hold it for the long term for the reasons mentioned above. But that's us. What is your opinion of Tesla here? Do you believe it will still be overvalued buying at $200? Please leave your comments and opinions below.
This article is written by Tradevestor for reference only. Please note the risks.
