SteadyOptions is an options trading forum where you can find solutions from top options traders. Join Us!

We’ve all been there… researching options strategies and unable to find the answers we’re looking for. SteadyOptions has your solution.

Using TLT Options to Increase Expected Returns of a Buy & Hold Portfolio


TLT is the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF that seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. Treasury bonds with remaining maturities greater than twenty years. Even though US Treasuries typically act as a diversifying asset class to mainstream equities, many investors with long time horizons may not be interested in holding TLT in their portfolio because it would lower expected returns.

While this is true, this ignores the ability to layer on options exposure in a margin account in a well thought out disciplined manner.

 

TLT is a popular ETF for options traders because US Treasuries are a widely followed market resulting in options contracts with high volume and liquidity. Even long term investors could benefit from trading TLT options, and I have a couple ideas of how. First, an investor with an equity ETF portfolio that is passively managed could write TLT puts as an overlay to increase expected returns and add diversification. This would be the more conservative approach. The second way would be to simulate a synthetic long TLT position by purchasing a longer dated ATM call and selling an ATM put. Some people refer to this position as a synthetic, a combo, or a risk reversal.

 

A trade example looking at today’s closing prices would be the following:

  • Buy 1 TLT January 21, 2022 143 call
  • Sell 1 TLT January 21, 2022 143 put

For a credit of $0.70

 

The confirm and send page for ThinkOrSwim shows the following details:

 

image.png

 

This position is very similar to owning 100 shares of TLT, which would currently cost more than $14,000. As a synthetic long position, the options trade is actually done at a small credit and would have positive carry evidenced by the break even stock price of $142.30. If an investor had a portfolio of $100,000 fully invested in a basket of equity ETF’s, similar to our ETF BuyWrite strategy available at no additional cost to Steady PutWrite subscribers, he or shemight also buy 2 or 3 TLT combos and effectively have a portfolio 100% invested in equities and 28-42% US Treasuries.

 

The TLT option combo will have a very similar return when held until maturity as owning TLT directly. There would likely be a small lag relative to TLT with the option combo because borrowing costs roughly equal to the risk free rate are embedded into the price of the contracts. If this were not true, you could go long TLT and short the options combo and earn the TLT yield without any price risk since it would be offset by the option positions.

 

Overall, this trade idea is a way to efficiently create low cost leverage. Since leverage magnifies both risk and return, it should be done carefully and only if you have a good understanding of the potential outcomes. My crystal ball is always cloudy so I can’t say if now is a good time or not to add this type of trade to your portfolio, but TLT was down more than 20% and currently is down about 14% since last August. Since US Treasuries tend to be a less volatile asset class than equities, this level of drawdown doesn’t happen often. Looking at monthly data going back to 1935 I find that this current drawdown would rank among the 5 largest in history. Buying proven asset classes like stocks and US treasury bonds with lots of long term evidence when they are going through large drawdowns usually turns out to be a good investment.

 

Jesse Blom is a licensed investment advisor and Vice President of Lorintine Capital, LP. He provides investment advice to clients all over the United States and around the world. Jesse has been in financial services since 2008 and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. Working with a CFP® professional represents the highest standard of financial planning advice. Jesse has a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Oral Roberts University.

Related articles

What Is SteadyOptions?

Full Trading Plan

Complete Portfolio Approach

Real-time trade sharing: entry, exit, and adjustments

Diversified Options Strategies

Exclusive Community Forum

Steady And Consistent Gains

High Quality Education

Risk Management, Portfolio Size

Performance based on real fills

Subscribe to SteadyOptions now and experience the full power of options trading!
Subscribe

Non-directional Options Strategies

10-15 trade Ideas Per Month

Targets 5-7% Monthly Net Return

Visit our Education Center

Recent Articles

Articles

  • SPX Options vs. SPY Options: Which Should I Trade?

    Trading options on the S&P 500 is a popular way to make money on the index. There are several ways traders use this index, but two of the most popular are to trade options on SPX or SPY. One key difference between the two is that SPX options are based on the index, while SPY options are based on an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the index.

    By Mark Wolfinger,

    • 0 comments
    • 439 views
  • Yes, We Are Playing Not to Lose!

    There are many trading quotes from different traders/investors, but this one is one of my favorites: “In trading/investing it's not about how much you make, but how much you don't lose" - Bernard Baruch. At SteadyOptions, this has been one of our major goals in the last 12 years.

    By Kim,

    • 0 comments
    • 889 views
  • The Impact of Implied Volatility (IV) on Popular Options Trades

    You’ll often read that a given option trade is either vega positive (meaning that IV rising will help it and IV falling will hurt it) or vega negative (meaning IV falling will help and IV rising will hurt).   However, in fact many popular options spreads can be either vega positive or vega negative depending where where the stock price is relative to the spread strikes.  

    By Yowster,

    • 0 comments
    • 793 views
  • Please Follow Me Inside The Insiders

    The greatest joy in investing in options is when you are right on direction. It’s really hard to beat any return that is based on a correct options bet on the direction of a stock, which is why we spend much of our time poring over charts, historical analysis, Elliot waves, RSI and what not.

    By TrustyJules,

    • 0 comments
    • 473 views
  • Trading Earnings With Ratio Spread

    A 1x2 ratio spread with call options is created by selling one lower-strike call and buying two higher-strike calls. This strategy can be established for either a net credit or for a net debit, depending on the time to expiration, the percentage distance between the strike prices and the level of volatility.

    By TrustyJules,

    • 0 comments
    • 1,481 views
  • SteadyOptions 2023 - Year In Review

    2023 marks our 12th year as a public trading service. We closed 192 winners out of 282 trades (68.1% winning ratio). Our model portfolio produced 112.2% compounded gain on the whole account based on 10% allocation per trade. We had only one losing month and one essentially breakeven in 2023. 

    By Kim,

    • 0 comments
    • 5,894 views
  • Call And Put Backspreads Options Strategies

    A backspread is very bullish or very bearish strategy used to trade direction; ie a trader is betting that a stock will move quickly in one direction. Call Backspreads are used for trading up moves; put backspreads for down moves.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 9,490 views
  • Long Put Option Strategy

    A long put option strategy is the purchase of a put option in the expectation of the underlying stock falling. It is Delta negative, Vega positive and Theta negative strategy. A long put is a single-leg, risk-defined, bearish options strategy. Buying a put option is a levered alternative to selling shares of stock short.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 11,141 views
  • Long Call Option Strategy

    A long call option strategy is the purchase of a call option in the expectation of the underlying stock rising. It is Delta positive, Vega positive and Theta negative strategy. A long call is a single-leg, risk-defined, bullish options strategy. Buying a call option is a levered alternative to buying shares of stock.

    By Chris Young,

    • 0 comments
    • 11,521 views
  • What Is Delta Hedging?

    Delta hedging is an investing strategy that combines the purchase or sale of an option as well as an offsetting transaction in the underlying asset to reduce the risk of a directional move in the price of the option. When a position is delta-neutral, it will not rise or fall in value when the value of the underlying asset stays within certain bounds. 

    By Kim,

    • 0 comments
    • 9,667 views

  Report Article

We want to hear from you!


There are no comments to display.



Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account. It's easy and free!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now

Options Trading Blogs