The big money has been on the other side - buying puts that other people are writing
so what you're browsing a giant list of puts for sale and picking some
or are you just saying "I'll buy any puts for this price on this date" and the market is big enough that some mad lad out there is guaranteed to sell to you
And also there has to be a second step in there to actually make the money, yes you buy a put and the value of the put goes up, but how do you cash out without selling that put and therefore forcing yourself to buy those stocks?
or is the difference that you're not creating a new put to sell in this case, you're just passing it along to someone else? that's sell to close as opposed to selling a put?
Yep, that's exactly it: You buy puts at a 'strike', and are buying from a 'giant list', so-to-speak. If those strikes are out-of-the-money, they're cheaper, but have a lower chance of expiring profitable, because every day they degrade in value: It's more risky. In-the-money strikes are the opposite: the expectations are lower, but the cost of the call/put is more.
You buy and sell the contract, not the underlying stock. You're selling the contract to someone else, with the implication that you've made enough money prior to that handoff. Option contracts degrade in value over time. Someone who buys a contract off of you with 1 day left of time decay will hope to profit from a very short-term move.
