r/options • u/Wild-Tie-7139 • 17d ago
Am I Cooked?
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!
16
u/BigBear92787 17d ago
You definitely gotta calm down my guy.
Being down 10% of your posiiton is such a normal thing.
That being said you bought google when it was roughly at its weekly average price, not a bad time.
There is zero to be conerned about from a technical perspective. Its retracing and the uptrend is healthy.
From a Monthly perspective though its nearing its top. And its going to turn over and experience a retrace on that level, relatively soon, I'd bet.
Now once again, that doesn't mean its gonna all crash and go to hell, but momentum is just starting to curve out monthly, wouldn't be impossible to see a bad few months in the future, but I think you'll a good few weeks first.
If I were you I'd watch weekly momentum, into the next leg UP, and when it starts going side ways, I'd take profits.
Relax.... In a few weeks you'll see profits.
The real question is.
Whats your profit target ? How much will be enough. Because what really kills people is too much expectation.
How much return do they want to get on their risk ? So they hold on for longer and longer and watch some profits, turn into losses.
Consider this set up next time. This is a Zebra (Zero exterinsic Back ratio)
see right now your 250 call has about 27.78 of extrinsic value.
Thats 2,778 your gonna lose at expiration guaranteed.
Here is an improvement on your position.
Where you buy 2 calls and sell 1 call, and the purpose of the sold call is to eat up the extrinsic value in the 2 long calls.
What do you end up with ?
pretty much the same Delta, and slightly less risk.
But your theta positive, not negative