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this 'naked call' truly allows me to make money out of thin air as i don't even have to own potatoes. it's risky though b/c if suddenly potatoes skyrocket in price, my loss is potentially unbounded vs if i owned the potatoes all they could do is take my potatoes

like if a cabal of redditors conspire to monopolize all the potatoes and i HAVE to buy from them at 1 million per potatoes i'd go bankrupt!

if i'm using cash as a buffer, my brokerage would force my hand into buying potatoes as soon as the obligation of the contract exceeded my cash buffer even though if in the long run i think the monopoly would break and i could buy potatoes at their regular price.

it's like how casinos won't lend you money even though theoretically you can martingale strategy your way to eventual victory given enough money/credit.

with a naked put on the other hand you are promising to buy without necessarily being able to engorge yourself on all those potatoes. ideally the market price goes up so that you never have to actually eat so many potatoes.

note that a naked put can be risky but at least the risk is capped. the contract specifies a specific number of potatoes at a specific price so at least you can't be in the hole for infinity dollars unlike the reddit monopolized potato scenario. at most you just sell a kidney.

when combined, options allow hoomans to have some degree of control over the future. this is their MAIN strength, the ability to think into the future and plan for and around it vs animals which always live in the now.

it can become degenerate though because the more one projects into the future the more one takes over the Act of Creation and the more one encroaches on God's Domain.