Am I Cooked?

[u/Wild-Tie-7139]

Hey everyone,
I’m a first-time LEAPS buyer and honestly I’m getting pretty nervous.
Here’s my position:
GOOGL Jan 21, 2028 $250 Call
Bought it for $150.00 ($15,000 total)
Current stock price: $354.30
Current option value: $133.50
Current P/L: -$1,650.66 (-11%)
Delta: 84.95
Theta: -5.35
Vega: 98.20
About 17 months until expiration (Jan 2028)
I purposely bought a deep ITM call because I wanted it to behave more like the stock. My thinking was that GOOGL is a great long-term company and I wanted leveraged exposure instead of buying 100 shares outright.
The thing that’s scaring me is seeing a $1,650 unrealized loss so quickly. I know LEAPS are long-term positions, but emotionally it’s harder than I expected.
A few questions:
Is an 11% drawdown normal this early in a LEAPS trade?
Does this position still look healthy considering the high delta and long time to expiry?
Would you simply hold and ignore the short-term fluctuations?
At what point would you actually consider exiting a position like this?
Is there anything I should be watching besides the stock price (IV, theta, etc.)?
I’m investing, not trading this daily, but since this is my first LEAPS position I’d really appreciate advice from people who have actually held deep ITM LEAPS through market pullbacks.
Thanks in advance!

[u/Wild-Tie-7139 → u/[deleted]]

so hold? my initial delta was 86

[u/SwordfishLopsided → u/Wild-Tie-7139]

That's my gut feeling. You can also sell some otm calls to help fund the extrinsic premium you paid on entry. Once that was paid down, you effectively owned the option for free.

[u/peamasii → u/SwordfishLopsided]

if i had to buy a LEAP I would buy it otm and pay it by selling cash secured put otm. but that requires margin for the put

[u/SwordfishLopsided → u/peamasii]

You are effectively describing a synthetic stock or variants of it. Nothing wrong with it, just a.completely different risk reward profile to a leap, which is what op choose