📉Short Options

Liquidity providers are options sellers. They passively sell calls or puts at custom prices. In a pool, multiple liquidity positions can be minted, each as an NFT.

If you are new to the Divergence Protocol, it is advised to start with the protocol basics.

In fact, a liquidity provider is a fee-earning passive trader, according to the put-call parity. If one is bullish, an alternative to buying a call is to short a put. Conversely, when one is bearish, a short call works similarly to a long put.

Unlike a traditional limit short order, a liquidity position on Divergence v1 is minted for the purpose of facilitating swaps. The pool contract is not able to stop a position from being crossed until its liquidity provider signs a transaction to remove liquidity. As the price moves back and forth in its price range, a short position can sell both calls and puts.

A liquidity position is intended to sell calls between [0.30, 0.80]. Once the current price enters its range, it can also sell puts between [1 - 0.80, 1 - 0.30], or [0.20, 0.70].

An option pool's open interests are settled in this logical order:

1️A long call and a long put settle each other, regardless of the outcome.

2️Any remaining longs in calls or puts in the pool are then squared with the LPs.

LP's exposure equals the position's net shorts in either calls or puts. The seed liquidity amount and the selected price range determine whether the LP will sell more calls than puts (short on call) or vice versa (short on put), and the maximum net amount of options a position can short.

When removing liquidity, the smart contracts compute a finalized amount of net shorts in calls or puts owed to a position. After reserving collateral for settlement, unused liquidity is returned.

An LP can close a position before expiry, by burning the amount of options net shorted. If not already owned, these options tokens can be market bought, the same as how short covering typically works.

Suppose a liquidity position is minted with collateral. After removing liquidity, it sells 3 calls and 5 puts. The LP is said to have net shorted 5-3=2 puts. Its LP needs to send 2 shield tokens (as puts) to the contract to redeem 2 collateral.

The position's PNL = 2 * ( effective price for open shorts - buyback price)

After the expiry, anyone can call the contract to settle the options. If the calls (or puts) settle out of money, their open shorts become profitable. One collateral can be withdrawn for each.

A position sells 3 calls and 5 puts at expiry. The LP is said to have net shorted 5-3=2 puts. If puts expire out-of-money, its LP can settle the position and withdraw 2 collateral. If the puts expire profitably, however, the collateral reserved for settlement goes to the put holders. No collateral can be withdrawn by the LP.

The following provide step-by-step guides about using the protocol interface to: