Option sellers lose shirts as wild price swings rule on Thursday

Option sellers make money eight out of 10 times at the expense of option buyers, goes the popular market adage. But, this saying was turned on its head on Thursday’s weekly expiry of Nifty contracts which saw the index swing a wild 248 points between high and low.

- Ram Sahgal

Through much of the day, call option sellers were caught on the wrong foot after the Nifty surged from an intraday low of 19,627, minutes after opening, to its high of 19,875.25 at around 2.50 pm. From there it fell by 0.5% or a 110 points to close at 19,765.2.

The initial rally forced many call sellers to close out their positions at a loss. Those remaining began selling Nifty futures contracts to force the bulls back towards the last 40 minutes of trading, said an analyst who asked not to be named.