Synthetic Short Stock
Description
Selling a call and buying a put at the same strike and expiry, replicating the payoff of a short position in the underlying without shorting it directly. ("Stock" is the traditional name from equity options; here the underlying is the crypto asset itself.)
Setup
- Sell one call at the money.
- Buy one put at the same strike and expiry.
Context
Used to gain short exposure without holding a short future or perpetual -- the carry to expiry is locked into the option prices instead of paid or received as funding -- or to exploit a pricing gap between the options and the futures market.
Risk Profile
Behaves like a short position in the underlying: gain grows as the underlying falls, bounded by zero; loss grows without bound as it rises.
Pros
- No short future or perpetual needed, so no exposure to changing funding rates; the carry is locked into the option prices.
- Delta-one exposure: moves closely track the underlying, inverted.
- Can be used to arbitrage a mispricing between the synthetic and the real underlying.
Effect of Time
Time decay has little net effect: the long put's decay is largely offset by the short call's decay.
Effect of Volatility
A change in implied volatility has little net effect, since the call and put move in opposite ways that largely cancel out.
Look-Alike Strategies
Live Structure
| Position? | Right? | Ratio | Strike | Expiry | IV? | Premium? | Fill Price? | Liquidity? | Est. Fee? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short | Call | 1 | $75000.0000 | 20 Nov 2026 | 38.5% | $1950.1500 | $1912.6471 | 81.5000 | $22.5017 |
| Long | Put | 1 | $75000.0000 | 20 Nov 2026 | 38.5% | $1950.1438 | $1987.6465 | 63.8000 | $22.5017 |
Net cost, breakevens, the payoff chart and the scenario table are after costs: every leg filled by crossing the spread, estimated fees included -- the same numbers the Scanner ranks by.
Estimated Cost to Assemble
An estimate of what entering this structure right now would really cost: filling every leg by crossing the spread (the ask when buying, the bid when selling) instead of at the mid-price, plus an estimated exchange fee. Real fees and fills can differ from this estimate.
Compare venues
These exact contracts -- same strikes, expiries and ratios -- on every venue BOSS tracks for this currency, at execution: what selling (bid) or buying (ask) each leg there comes to, after that venue's own fee. Green marks the best venue for each leg and for the whole structure.
| Deribit this page | Bybit | OKX | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Index? | $74881.7500 | $74973.4047 | $74882.9000 |
| Mid-Price Cost | -$0.0062 | -$85.0000 | $0.0000 |
| Slippage? | +$75.0057 | +$5.0000 | +$37.5067 |
| Estimated Fees? | +$45.0034 | +$45.0856 | +$45.0081 |
| Total Estimated Cost | $120.0028 | -$34.9144$154.9200 better than this page | $82.5148$37.4900 better than this page |
| Max Profit? | Uncapped | Uncapped | Uncapped |
| Max Loss? | Uncapped | Uncapped | Uncapped |
| Breakeven(s)? | $74879.9972 | $75034.9144 | $74917.4852 |
| Structure IV? | 38.5% | 38.9% | 38.3% |
| Open on this venue → | Open on this venue → |
Each leg: what it nets there per contract (fill price with the fee folded in), then the fill price, fee, IV and the size quoted at that price.
For comparing prices, not a recommendation: quotes move by the second, size is only what's shown at the top of the book, fees are each venue's published estimate, and the venues settle against different indexes and margin separately.
Market Context
This expiry as the Dashboard sees it: how the legs are priced against at-the-money and realized volatility, and where the expiry's forward sits against spot.
Volatility Smile?
Implied volatility across strikes at this expiry; the marked lines are this structure's strikes. Buying on the high part of the curve pays up for volatility; selling there collects it.
Leg bought Leg sold
Payoff & Greeks vs. Underlying Price
The Greeks curves are a Black-Scholes model using each leg's current implied volatility, holding time to expiry fixed -- not live exchange data at every price, which only exists at the current price (dashed line).
Payoff at Expiration
After costs At mid price
This structure's value and profit/loss at expiration, at a handful of specific prices: every leg's strike, every breakeven, the current spot, and the chart's own range.
| Underlying Price | Value at Expiration | Profit / Loss | Return on Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| $60000.0000 | $15000.0000 | $14879.9972 | +12399.7% |
| $74879.9972 breakeven | $120.0028 | $0.0000 | +0.0% |
| $75000.0000 current | $0.0000 | -$120.0028 | -100.0% |
| $90000.0000 | -$15000.0000 | -$15120.0028 | -12599.7% |
Delta (model)?
Gamma (model)?
Vega (model)?
Theta (model)?
Rho (model)?
Alternatives
From the Scanner's latest pass (21:31:48 UTC), priced at execution like everything above.
Same payoff through other strategies
None found in the latest scan.
Other strikes and widths of this strategy
None found in the latest scan.