Options Funding Requirements
Options are quoted in dollars. You need USD to buy options on LedgerX. Options cannot be purchased with BTC or ETH.
| Collateral required for trade | |
|---|---|
| Buy Call | Pay dollar premium. Need USD to buy options. |
| Buy Put | Pay dollar premium. Need USD to buy options. |
| Sell Call | Post underlying (BTC or ETH). |
| Sell Put | Post USD strike price in dollars. |
How much collateral do I need for my trade?
Let's take a look at the September 2021 $10,000 strike for BTC. The current put bid/ask for is $200/$350. This means there is a buyer willing to pay $200 and a seller willing to sell at $350. This is the price per 100 bitcoin mini contracts. You can click on the ask price to see how much you will need to buy this option.
In the Options Order Entry form, the Premium is the amount of USD you need to pay for the contract(s). Since there is a seller willing to sell at $350, you can lift their offer and buy the contracts at $350. If you just wanted to buy one contract, you would pay $3.50.
Insufficient Collateral Error - Buying Options
If you receive the insufficient collateral message, please check that you have enough USD to cover the options premium and trading fees.
How to add dollars to your account: You can sell BTC or ETH for USD using our next-day Swap contract or you can send USD via wire transfer.
Insufficient Collateral Error - Selling to Close Long Puts
You are receiving this error because you do not have enough USD to cover the fee for selling to close these contracts (15 cents per contract). If you have enough dollars to cover the trading fees for one contract, you can sell one contract, receive the premium and then sell to close the rest of your position.
Insufficient Collateral Error - Selling Puts
Selling Puts require posting USD as collateral equal to the USD strike price based on the number of contracts when selling puts.
In the BTC example below, you would need to have $25,000 USD on the platform when selling 50 mini contracts for the $50,000 2022-12-30 Put Option:
