Synthetic Long

Directional

Buy ATM call + sell ATM put — replicates stock ownership with options.

Risk Profile

Max Profit
Unlimited
Max Loss
Strike − Net debit (underlying → 0)
Breakeven
Strike + Net debit
Outlook
Bullish (stock equivalent)

Parameters

ParameterDefaultDescription
dte45Days to expiration

Methodology

A synthetic long buys an ATM call and sells an ATM put at the same strike and expiration, replicating the payoff of owning the underlying stock. The net debit is small (call premium minus put premium). It provides full upside participation and full downside exposure, just like owning the stock, but with less capital tied up. Backtested with 45 DTE cycles, P&L expressed as a percentage of the underlying entry price.

Implementation

# Synthetic Long: buy ATM call + sell ATM put
for entry in monthly_entries:
    S = spot_at_entry
    K = round(S / 5) * 5           # ATM strike
    T = 45 / 365.25

    call_prem = black_scholes_call(S, K, T, r, sigma)
    put_prem  = black_scholes_put(S, K, T, r, sigma)
    net_debit = call_prem - put_prem  # small, near zero

    S_exp = spot_at_expiry
    call_payoff = max(0, S_exp - K)
    put_loss    = max(0, K - S_exp)
    pnl = call_payoff - put_loss - net_debit
    pnl_pct = pnl / S * 100

Backtest Performance

SymbolReturn %SharpeMax DD %Win %Avg/trade %Trades
SPY+45.9%0.46+17.1%+79.0%+2.4%19
QQQ+51.6%0.39+22.3%+68.4%+2.7%19
IWM+46.2%0.30+37.6%+63.2%+2.4%19
DIA+41.1%0.47+16.3%+68.4%+2.2%19
Avg+46.2%0.41+23.3%+69.7%19

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