When I was a teenager in the 1990's, an older friend of a friend owned a hot day-glow yellow Ford truck. I don't remember what model it was, but it was some kind of suped- up classic. It looked something like this:
A typical summer evening would entail me and my buddies piling into the back of this hotrod, with our Oakley sunglasses (blades) shining, and our mullets blowing in the wind. Hopped up on Snapple Iced-Teas, this motley crew would drive around town, hitting all the local hotdog and ice cream joints, looking for girls to gawk at.
Yep, we were cool dudes. With a purpose.
This pic is not me. But it coulda been me and my blades, and certainly my friends. As you can imagine, we were quite successful in wooing teenage girls of similar dispositions.
Man, those were the days. The thrill of hopping in the back of that truck, a warm summer breeze, a late curfew, and no particular place to be. I'd go back to that moment in time in a heartbeat.
All of this is coming back to me as I find myself suddenly enjoying a quick #FreeRide on Ford stock ($F) via an options risk reversal trade.
On Tuesday, me and the guys piled into short September 14 puts to pay for September 17 long calls. The goal was to be in the trade for a net zero cost. The proceeds from the short sale of the puts perfectly covered the cost of the long calls. Mission accomplished. And the hope was, somewhere down the road, we'd be able to sell some of our long calls to pay for the closing of all of the short puts, leaving us net long calls at a small credit -- meaning I have guaranteed (small) profits built in, with no chance of loss for the campaign, but the potential for unlimited upside.
Well, it happened in two days:
Apparently the news is Ford is now an "AI play." Hilarious. But ok, I'll play along. And now I can do so with no risk.
This #FreeRide feeling, for me, is no different than arriving at a packed Anderson's Frozen Custard stand (#IYKYK), turning heads cuz our blades are so cool and we just jumped of the back of that super cool hotrod, cutting to the front of the line to score two lemon ices, and turning around to find the cute brunette from the neighboring school super happy to see me and receive one of my ices.
