Trade options in roth ira account

I receive many responses from readers of my option strategy articles. Recently one question keeps popping up, though in various forms.

Do these strategies work with IRA accounts? The simple answer is YES, to an extent. In some cases options actually work better in an IRA than in a taxable account.

Trading Options in Roth IRAs (SCHW) | Investopedia

One of the most common option strategies is the selling of a naked put instead of actually buying the underlying stock. The taxation of gain on any security including options that is sold short is at ordinary income rates. So, from an IRA taxation standpoint there is no difference in selling puts and buying stock though there may well be a difference in investment result. If you hold a stock long enough the dividends and any gain can be taxed at the lower long-term capital gains tax rate.

Shorting a put is always taxed at ordinary rates and can be significantly higher. This is a factor that can reduce your net after-tax yield and should be factored into your planning. Putting taxation aside, there are several limitations in IRA accounts you need to deal with. First is the margin account.

Your IRA must establish a margin account if you are going to employ any strategy other than simply buying calls or puts. This is generally not a big deal but does require proper trading authority from the compliance department of your broker.

The simplest level of authority allows the selling of covered calls. This is really more of a stock strategy than an option strategy but I include it. This is relatively easy to understand.

Instead of an outright purchase you could chose to sell 10 puts each put controls shares. In essence, there is no leverage. Taxable margin accounts increase the leverage as much as four-fold. This is either good or bad, depending on which side you land on.

An additional limitation in an IRA account is the prohibition against short selling. In a taxable account you can sell naked calls and just need to deal with margin requirements.

Strategies so limited include straddles, strangles, synthetic shorts and other derivations. This would require you to sell a put and a call at the same strike usually at the same expiry, but not required. In a taxable margin account this would be permitted. This can be a very useful tool when a trade entered by selling a put turns against you.

Selling a call can offset or reduce further losses. You use little or no margin. They often understand what they are but might not really understand how they can be used. Straddles and strangles can provide one of the easiest and most productive hedges available. Readers may want to review my article on using a strangle to hedge XLE to see these strategies in action. This leads us to the available option strategiesspreads.

Included in these are calendar spreads, diagonal spreads, vertical spreads and certain butterfly and condors that fully pair options. This requires a higher trading authority. This strategy consists of selling a put at one strike and buying a protective put at a lower strike both with same expiration. If you did not have the higher trading authority it would break down as two separate transactions. Many of my portfolio strategies consist, in part, of buying far dated options and selling near dated or weekly options calendar spreads.

These spreads are all permitted in an IRA account and one need only take into account available margin balances.

The IRA margin calculation for a calendar spread is the same as the vertical put. It is just the difference in strikes times the shares. If you sold a call at a higher price than the one you bought, there is no margin requirement, just cash.

It is viewed very much the same as a covered call. Additionally, if you sell a put at a lower strike than the one you bought there is no margin, just cash. A snake lays waiting for you in the brush.

Day Trading Options in IRA Accounts | The Finance Base

This requires constant monitoring of the extrinsic value of the option to determine its likelihood of assignment. When the extrinsic approaches just a few cents the assignment likelihood increases.

If the likelihood is great, you need to pre-mpt the assignment by rolling the option beforehand. If you just use cash secured puts you never have to worry about assignment as there is always enough money to cover the assignment. A similar problem can occur if you sell a call as part of a paired strategy and the call is assigned. You end up being short the underlying.

In conclusion, if you can secure the necessary trading authority many of the option strategies will be available to you. Margin requirements will restrict some of the leverage available when compared with taxable accounts. Assignment can also become a greater problem than a taxable account and requires monitoring.

These are not major obstacles, but ones that need to be kept in mind. I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

Options Strategies And Your IRA Account Dec. Investing Ideas , Options.

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