hi can you sell sell put's and calls on the indexes?

Question

hi, can you sell calls and puts on the SPY,VIX,OEX. I know you can write covered or uncovered call and puts on a underlying equity. But i know none of this indexes issues stock. This will help me immensly looking at the open interest on the SPY,VIX,OEX.

Thank You

Answer 1

You can buy or sell cash settled options on VIX. Here are the contract specifications:

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/vixoptions_spec.aspx

You can buy or sell cash settled options on OEX. Here are the contract specifications:

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/oex_spec.aspx (American-style settlement)

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/xeo_spec.aspx (European-style settlement)

SPY is an ETF, not an index. You can buy or sell options on SPY.

If you want to buy or sell options on the actual S&P 500 index instead of the ETF, you can. Here are the contract specifications.

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/spx_spec.aspx

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/xsp_spec.aspx

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/quarterly_xsp_spec.aspx

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/spx_shortterm_spec.aspx

http://www.cboe.com/Products/indexopts/quarterly_spx_spec.aspx

You can also buy or sell options on many other indexes. See the list at

http://www.cboe.com/Products/Cash-SettledIndexOptions.aspx

For more information on index options, see

http://www.cboe.com/Products/IndexOptions.aspx

Answer 2

i am not sure i don't think you can