Collar
Long the coin, long OTM put, short OTM call. You buy a floor and sell a ceiling. Net premium can be near zero when skew is cooperative — or expensive when puts are bid. The leftover risk is gap through the put (if you used a spread) and missing a rally above the call.
Inventory must actually be there. A collar without the coins is a risk reversal.
Synthetic long and short
Long call + short put, same strike and expiry, behaves like long forward (delta near 1, small premium if struck ATM). Short call + long put behaves like short forward. In crypto you must still match settlement units and watch early assignment only if the product is not European cash-settled.
Why do it? Sometimes options-implied forward versus perp/future is the actual trade (conversion/reversal). Sometimes you cannot trade the coin but can trade the synthetic. Fees often kill the textbook identity.
Conversion and reversal (intro)
Conversion: long coin, short synthetic (short call, long put) to lock a basis-like package. Reversal is the opposite. This is cash-and-carry’s cousin in options language. You need borrow/inventory, clean settlement, and tiny spreads.
This is not beginner edge. If you cannot measure basis versus funding, skip it. See cash-and-carry and put-call-parity.
Where identities break
Different indices, different multipliers, early exercise (rare on crypto listed), borrow, and simply not being able to trade all three legs at once. Also: one venue’s option versus another venue’s coin.
Match profiles tell you who lists linear versus inverse. They do not execute the package.
Risk management
A collar still has operational coin risk. A synthetic still has short-option margin on the short leg. Treat them as full positions, not as “flat.”
Liquidation on the short option can fire while the coin sits in cold storage — a nasty split brain.
Practice this on OptionsMatch
Risk lab for collar and synthetic shapes. Chain for call/put marks at one strike. /t/btc/basis for futures/perp context. /venue for product flags.
Educational identities only.