Shorting Options -- Question on System

I like the strategy of this system and was looking to trade it but was wondering if there is anyway to prevent buying into the open position that this system always keeps active in the S&P ETF. It never closes this position since it is used to write the options against as collateral. I would prefer to just keep the collateral in cash.

Why would you want to keep the collateral in cash? It would still be equally at risk and at the moment one gets almost zero interest on cash. SPY on the other hand pays a useful dividend.



As someone who trades a strategy ([LINKSYSTEM_46575367]) with some similarity, I would say keep the SPY.



If you nevertheless want to keep cash instead then you can modify the positions like so: instead of holding stock and selling a call, simply sell a put. A written put has the same risk/reward characteristics as "plus stock minus call". Usually you will get a bit more premium for SPY puts than calls, but you get no dividends.



BTW, perhaps the system developer may want to start his own forum for system-specific discussions like this?