I wanted to show a few examples with pictures to illustrate how inexpensive it can be to buy 100 votes
I am going to show pictures of each ticker with me going long 100 shares, short a call, and long a put. The call and put will be for the same strike and the same expiration. At the very end will be a summary table of upfront costs, losses/gains, and then some additional comments.
Please note:
- This assumes no early exercise, which is a risk to this.
- This assumes what is displayed on the ticket can be filled. Technically, it will not fill as optimally, but the gist of this is the key.
- This is all based on data from thinkorswim pulled around 11:30am on 3/30/2023.
Examples
TLDR Summary
- GME: for $2.4k, you can buy 100 votes and you’ll lose is $88
- Robinhood: for $1.1k, you can buy 100 votes and you’ll gain $13
- AMC: for $0.7k, you can buy 100 votes and you’ll lose $138
- Apple: for $16.8k, you can buy 100 votes and you’ll gain $194
- Microsoft: for $27.4k, you can buy 100 votes and you’ll gain $141
For 5 different tickers, this shows how you can shed some or all of your economic risk and have full voting rights. This is empty voting!
You just figured out what a hedge is. Options transfer risk (but not ownership). It's not free. You've sold your upside with the call, plus "it will not fill as optimally" means that you lose money in transaction costs.
Your 100 votes doesn't mean anything. There is not enough open interest (in options) to be meaningful, plus it would move the market strongly against you. And, you know, the SEC would need to know what you're doing once you have 5% of the shares.
Are you saying voting rights don't matter?
This is showing how easy it is to get into empty voting positions.
I'm saying you are paying for those voting rights
Of course you're paying for those votes. In addition, yes it's true the options expire. 0.65 cents is substantial for options?
The purpose of this is to show what empty voting is and how one could enter it easily.