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Would have loved to read a longer writeup exploring that premise (which I agree with). The difference between Bad ideas and Good ideas, is determined by the outcome. Something that seems bad but ends up working (milliondollarhomepage, pet-rock, etc.) ends up being brilliant, in the eyes of the public.
Bad ideas are magical when they come in the form of long call options (bounded cost, unlimited upside). Bad ideas destroy companies/nations/civilizations when they come in the form of short put options (bounded benefit, unlimited downside).
> short put options
I tried to think of what a "short call option" or a "long put option" would be, and I don't think the concepts exist. Do they?
Bad ideas are magical when they come in the form of long call options (bounded cost, unlimited upside). Bad ideas destroy companies/nations/civilizations when they come in the form of short put options (bounded benefit, unlimited downside).
> long call options > short put options I tried to think of what a "short call option" or a "long put option" would be, and I don't think the concepts exist. Do they?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> long call options > short put options I tried to think of what a "short call option" or a "long put option" would be, and I don't think the concepts exist. Do they?
If you buy a call option, someone has to be on the other side of the contract. They are the short position.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, they're still going at it. Partnered with Virgin to make further iterations of the Spaceship One concept under The Spaceship Company. They're shooting to do private spaceflights under the name Virgin Galactic.
Orbit though?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you buy a call option, someone has to be on the other side of the contract. They are the short position.
Sure, but they don't have a call option. All they have is an obligation.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but they don't have a call option. All they have is an obligation.
Short just means they have a negative amount of that, in this case a negative amount of options.
Owning a positive number of put options makes you short the underlying stock, which is presumably why the comment upthread described put options as "short put options". Selling put options gives you a long position, not a short position.
I wanted to analyze this in terms of the original comment, in which "short put options" have limited upside and unlimited downside, but put options do not have unlimited downside for either the buyer or the seller. The buyer can't lose more than the price of the option, and the seller can't lose more than the strike price. Put options are a case of "limited upside, limited downside" from any perspective.
Call options are the ones with unlimited upside (for the buyer) and unlimited downside (for the seller).
Bad ideas are magical when they come in the form of long call options (bounded cost, unlimited upside). Bad ideas destroy companies/nations/civilizations when they come in the form of short put options (bounded benefit, unlimited downside).
> long call options > short put options I tried to think of what a "short call option" or a "long put option" would be, and I don't think the concepts exist. Do they?
I also know multi-layered derivatives such as options on options and options on futures exist (as I’ve written code for them), but I’m curious what they’re used for.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Orbit though?
Sub-orbital. Think getting the craft up to altitude of 100+ km, hang out for a few minutes, and descend back to Earth. SpaceShip One, the prototype inspiring the Virgin Galactic fleet, was capable of reaching speeds of 0.9 km/s. [1] Escape velocity to get into orbit from Earth's surface is 11.2 km/s. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_velocity
For example, ISS has orbit speed of about 7.7 km/s at 350 km above the ground. Orbit speed "at the surface" of Earth is about 8km/s, I believe.