Thursday, December 10, 2009

Learn How To Trade Options In Our Lifetime Options Course Training Guide Overview

By Johnny M Junior

Learn how to trade options in our lifetime options course. Options are a strong instrument that every investor should become knowledgeable about.

Before getting started forget what you have heard about the risks involved with trading options. Options are meant to limit and manage risk.

When investing in the stock market, you are always taking a chance. You can limit your risks two ways. Anytime stock is bought, the buyer is betting when the stock increases in value. It is not a guarantee that this will happen. If it was guaranteed, all assets would go into buying that particular stock. When a buyer also purchases options, that buyer is limiting the risk of losing money while being assured that there is no limit to potential earnings. You can speculate and hedge when purchasing options which is what options do for you. There are actually some option strategies which have nearly no risk at all involved. These spreads can take years to discover if you do not learn from a mentor. In fact, most option traders never learn them.

Investors might also decide to hedge their investments. Ultimately, this means that the investor is paying for insurance that will guard their investment against unforeseen. Hedging is akin to paying for homeowners insurance. The possibility of a disaster occurring is slim to none, but knowing that someone else will have to shoulder the responsibility of the disaster is more satisfying than dealing with it on your own. Hedging your portfolio protects your investment.

The prices of options are based on the price of an underlying stock.

Deciding whether to hedge or contemplate using your options is only the first step needed. You will find an option chain listing and then see what is available for you to select. Simply choosing to hedge or contemplate is not nearly enough. It is also wise to establish an investment strategy and whether you are trading a call option or a put. Decide what price you want to trade and how long you want the expiration date to last. Finally, what option strategy to use based on volatility in the markets.

The value of an option is established by using a convoluted differential equation.

Five necessities determine the value of stock options. Risk free rate, option strike price, time to expiration, underlying asset price and asset volatility are taken into consideration.

Each element has a key role in setting the price of an option. Understand that there are only two elements that you can control. You can control the time to expiration and the strike price. Make sure to choose the right expiration and strike price for you. Several rules when doing this include:

Hedging: a simple strategy to protect the downside of the market is something like a longer expiration and using puts on out of money options.

Speculating: some like to buy in the money calls for an upward move in the market. This is just a basic, entry level strategy.

Out and in the money options both have benefits and downsides. An ITM option is going to be more money to buy; however, the possibility of it still having value upon expiration is higher. An OTM option is cheaper initially but the chances of it having any value when it expires is very slim.

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