The short albatross spread is a volatile options trading strategy, which is designed to return a profit when a security makes a sharp price movement: in either direction. It involves a total of four transactions, which can be made using either calls or puts. It’s one of the more complicated strategies and you’ll need to put a lot of thought in when using it, specifically when determining which strike prices to use for the four legs involved.
Key Points
- Volatile Strategy
- Not Suitable for Beginners
- Four Transactions (buying and writing call options at different strike prices)
- Can also use Put Options
- Credit Spread (upfront credit received)
- Medium/High Trading Level Required
- Also Known as Short Wide Condor Spread
An Overview
This isn’t a strategy that is suitable for beginners, and we would recommend that only options traders with a decent level of experience consider using it.
The short albatross is essentially the same as a short condor spread, with just one notable difference; the range between the strike prices used is wider for the short albatross than for the short condor. For this reason, many options traders and options trading experts don’t particularly recognize the short albatross as a strategy in its own right.
The term short albatross spread does get used, though, which is why we felt we should include a dedicated page to it on OptionsTrading.org. However, although we usually write detailed information on any strategy we cover on this site, we don’t feel that is necessary in this case.
This is simply due to the fact that we would effectively be duplicating the information we have already provided on the short condor. If you know how to create a short condor spread, then you know how to create a short albatross spread. All you have to do is widen the difference between the strike prices of the options in the four legs.
The short albatross makes a profit in the same way, and the calculations for the break-even points, the maximum loss, and the maximum profit are the same. Please click here learn all about the short condor, which will basically teach you everything you need to know about the short albatross spread.