I agree about the OA's being the go. However it depends on how...

I agree about the OA's being the go. However it depends on how sizable investment you are looking at dropping down. The beauty of the OA's is you can control a lot more stock for a lot less money. Which then gives you the chance to use the extra money somewhere else in the meantime only needing it when you are actually ready to capitalise on the investment. Also judging by recent price action they are not as easily effected by the price moves which the O's and heads are if anything percentage wise, they follow the heads, making them no more risky. Yes they will cost more to exercise down the track but the initial investment is much lower. I would only look to exercise just before I sold so I could very temporarily use money (for a matter of days) to convert and then get it straight back once done and sold (a total of a week) In that regard you could essentially justify the profit generated as being calculated only on the initial investment in the options and that's if I even need to convert, it's possible there will be no extra money to be made by converting versus just plain selling the options, depends on how close to expiry you hold them.

So the fact you put less money on the table and have a similar risk in terms of % of investment actually makes them LESS risky and more profitable than the heads...the O's right now are an out and out gamble, but could pay handsomely if this strike keeps getting extended... they've been at the drilling for a while now so who knows what results are still due and when??!!