Question

"A customer is long the Swiss Franc at a cost of $.60 per SF. The customer wishes to place a collar on the position using PHLX SF FLEX options. To create the collar, the customer would:"

Answer 1

Answer:

To create the collar, the customer would: buy 1 PHLX 59 SF Call and sell 1 PHLX 61 SF Call.

Explanation:

The meaning of a "collar" is that a put is bought at a strike price that is less than the price of the underlying instrument (this implies that a floor has been put on the price of the instrument); and that a call is disposed at a strike price which is higher than the price of the underlying instrument (this indicates that a ceiling above which the instrument will be called away has been created).

When a collar is put on the price, it indicates that the customer is majorly giving a guarantee for the underlying instrument's minimum and maximum price.

This should make the net cost of the collar to be close to zero due to the fact that the two contracts are "out the money" and also because the premium paid to buy the put is offset by the premium received when the call was sold.

Therefore, since customer in the question wishes to place a collar on the position using PHLX SF FLEX options, he would buy 1 PHLX 59 SF Call and sell 1 PHLX 61 SF Call to create the collar.