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Comment by mr_world | Hacker News Reader

I was going to short a few shares just for fun, but TIL that the tokyo stock exchange only lets you trade in multiples of 100 shares (~228 USD per share right now for TYO: 6920 Lasertec Corporation)... https://www.jpx.co.jp/english/equities/improvements/unit/

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At $22,800 with unlimited downside if the stock goes up, that's a pretty expensive gamble.

That's not true if you buy a single put option (it is 100 shares). If you sell a naked put option you're opening yourself up to unlimited losses potentially. Not to worry, most brokerages won't let you put in such an order unless you file some paperwork attesting to your level of trading experience, often referred to as Level 3 or 4. When you buy a put option, your risk is always limited to the premium paid, and nothing more. The upside is potentially unlimited profit. And I'm not even getting into the dozens of options architectures which optimize for specific trading theses.

There are many, many ways to construct the trade to limit the downside risk.

I wanted to do 3 year puts on Tesla, every 6 months.

I would have done fantastic, but I didn't have the 30k/buy it took to pull off the deal. For the same reason, 100 shares were needed.

Why would it cost you that? December puts on Tesla at $120 trade at $5 right now. You can lose all your stake but no more than that.

it was 3 year puts, you had to buy 100.

Looks like the places I have brokerage accounts don’t let me make a trade like this at all after hours.

Surely some puts are in order?

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