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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)
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Author: tedthedog ⎊  😊 😞
Number: of 22353 
Subject: OT: Hershey
Date: 11/02/23 2:34 PM
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This is a continuation of the previous thread on HSY, now a few days old so I'm not sure that people are still following it.

The implied interest on Jan 16 2026 LEAPS looks interesting, i.e. very low, see below. If I screwed something up I'm sure I'll be told about it:

At the time of writing, Nov 2 2023, HSY is at 190 and for reference VIX at 16.2.
Jan 16 2026 strike 95 call: bid 95.50 ask 99.90, guess a fill near middle at 97.70

Paralleling Engr27 explanation of implied interest in another thread:
190-97.70= 92.30 is the amount "borrowed" to control a share
To exercise the call (at expiration) would cost 95
So 92.30 is borrowed and 95 is repaid in 806 days
(95/92.30)^(365/806)= 1.013, so the implied annual interest rate is 1.3%

Here's another way to get the same result:
You'll need $95 in cash to buy at the strike at expiration, so set aside $95 now (assume for simplicity that you get no interest on it).
The Ask plus the Strike, 97.70+95=192.70, is the cash needed to control those shares using options through Jan 2026.
The cash needed for simply buying a share now is 190, so you're paying an extra 192.70-190=2.70 to control those shares through Jan 2026 using options.
Why are you paying more?
You're paying 2.70 more because you're effectively borrowing $92.30 upfront and keeping it for 806 days, and this has a cost i.e. $2.70.
What's the effective annualized interest rate associated with this cost?
You're borrowing 92.30 for 806 days and paying 2.70 for that privelege.
So you're paying 2.70/92.30=0.029 or 2.92% total interest over the 806 days.
Annualizing this yields (1+0.029)^(365/806)-1= 0.013 or 1.3% implied annual interest rate, which agrees with the above.


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This community has written 21,861 posts about Berkshire Hathaway. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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