Options Trading

Options trading is the trading of an actual legal contract that relates to securities. Options are a type of contract where the option purchaser has the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security at a specific price during a specified period of time. Below we go over options trading basics.

Stock options are the most commonly traded options. Stock options are contracts that are created between an option seller and an option buyer. The option seller, also called the option writer, will create an option that is based upon a specific stock giving the option buyer the opportunity to buy or sell the stock at a specific price within a specific period of time. Each option controls 100 shares of the underlying stock but due to their construction, they cost a fraction of what purchasing 100 shares of the stock would cost. This added purchasing power, or leverage, is one of the things that makes options very appealing to many investors and traders.

Most options trading strategies must be done in a margin account. A margin account is a type of trading account that is setup with your broker; it is an account in which the broker will extend credit to the client. Just like any other account where credit is involved the broker will perform their due diligence on the client which may include a credit report, background check, and employment history. The broker, just like any other lender, wants to be sure that the client is a good credit risk and that he will be paid back if a client’s margin trading position goes badly. Often times people are hesitant to open up a margin account because credit is involved but it is just like any other type of account where credit is extended, just because you have the credit available does not mean that you have to use it.

There are two types of options; call and put options. Call options are purchased when we believe that the price of the underlying stock will rise and put options are purchased when we believe that the price of the underlying stock will fall. The buyers and sellers of options have opposite opinions about what the price of the underlying stock will do during the life of the option.

All options have a specific expiration date so they all have a finite life unlike the underlying stock whose life is considered to be perpetual or ongoing. All options have a strike price which is also called the exercise price. This is the price at which the options can be exercised at and it is the price that the underlying stock is either bought or sold for. When an option buyer exercises his rights, under the terms of the option agreement, the option seller must perform; this means that the seller of the option will either have to buy the underlying stock from the option purchaser or sell the underlying stock to the option purchaser at the strike price.

Options can live for various time frames such as a week, a number of months or even for years but they all expire at some point in the future. Weekly options actually live for about ten days, they expire on the Friday following the week that they were written in or created in. All monthly options expire on the 3rd Friday of the month of their expiration. Longer term options will also expire on the 3rd Friday of the month of their expiration.

Three of the most important things to look at when analyzing a chart are the trend, momentum and support/resistance. You can use each of these separately or in conjunction with various technical indicators. Keep in mind that these factors along with basic price action indicators and trading strategies show us how the price of a security is moving and how it may move in the future.

There are risks in all types of trading but when you are buying options your risk is limited. The risk to the buyer of the option is if the price of the underlying stock does not move in the direction that they expected the option can never be exercised and it will expire worthless. In this case the buyer will lose the total amount of money that they paid to the seller, the option premium, but they cannot lose more than that amount so their risk is limited. You are not risking your entire account or your home or your retirement savings; you are simply risking what you have already spent to enter into the position.

The seller, or the writer of the option, potentially has a much larger risk. The option seller’s maximum profit is the amount of money that they received when the option was sold, the option premium, but the risk can be far greater than that amount. If the option seller does not own the underlying stock when he sells the option his position is naked or uncovered, in this case his risk is theoretically considered to be infinite.

It is very important to know how to determine your maximum position size per trade relative to the size of your trading account. A good rule to follow is to never risk more than 2% of the total balance of your account on any one trade if your account balance is greater than $5,000. If your account balance is less than $5,000, never risk more than 5% of the current balance of your account on any one trade. To see what your maximum risk is based upon your account size, try using our options trading risk management calculator built by Bill Poulos.

The terms in-the-money and out-of-the-money are terms that are used to describe if a position is profitable or not. A call option is considered to be out-of-the-money when its strike price is higher than the stock’s current market price. An example would be if an option buyer buys a call option for $5.00 with a strike price of $50.00 and the current market price of the stock is $47.00. A put option is considered to be out-of-the-money when its strike price is lower than the stock’s current market price. An example of an out-of-the-money put would be if an option buyer buys a put option for $5.00 with a strike price of $50.00 and the current market price of the stock is $53.00. In both cases the option is considered to be out-of-the-money or not exercisable.

A call option moves in-the-money and is exercisable if the price of the stock were to move above $50.00. The further the price of the stock goes above $50.00, or the strike price, the more profit the call option buyer can realize and the bigger the potential loss is that the option seller may have.

A put option becomes in-the-money and exercisable if the price of the underlying stock were to move below $50.00. The further the price of the stock goes below $50.00, or the strike price, the more profit the put option buyer can realize.

The value of call options rises as the value of the stock rises which means that the call option buyer can either sell the option on the open market or he can exercise the option. If the buyer of the call option chooses to exercise the option when the price of the stock is at $55.00, the seller of the option is required to sell the stock to him at $50.00. The buyer can immediately sell the stock on the open market at $55.00 for a $5.00 per share profit. Remember, since every option controls 100 shares of stock, this is a $500.00 profit for the option buyer.

The seller of the option has to provide the stock at $50.00 and if he does not own the shares, he will have to buy them on the open market at the higher price or borrow them from the broker which means that he will end up with a short position in that stock. The option seller’s total profit or loss will then be determined by how much he has to pay to buy the stock back so he can return the shares to the broker. If he pays more than $50.00 per share to buy it back he will lose money and if he pays less than $50.00 per share he may make a profit.

Put options work in the exact opposite way except that the price of the option will only rise as the price of the underlying stock falls. Likewise, if the price of the stock rises the value of the put will decrease. A more specific type of market entry strategy or entry order is an entry stop order. When using an entry stop order you are placing the entry order at a worse position than where the market price currently is requiring the price action to move in the direction of the trade before the entry order is filled. If you are uncertain as to which way the price action of a stock is going to move and your market analysis does not give you a clear direction you could employ a straddle option trading strategy which allows you take advantage of the movement of the price action regardless of which way it goes.

One of the more common types of price charts that traders use to follow various markets are candlestick charts. These price charts are also referred to as Japanese candlestick charts. Candlestick charts are arguably the easiest type of chart to view. Each candle presents the open, high, low and the close of the candle along with a specific candle color, one color for a long candle a different color for a short candle. The colors of the candles can be helpful in determining the direction of the market as well as when the direction may be reversing, making stop loss levels more obvious. Multiple candles in a row can create specific candlestick patterns or Japanese candlestick patterns. When they are created, candlestick patterns are commonly used to determine the direction of the given market— providing entry points along with precise trading exit strategies —which can assist traders in placing profit targets as well protective stop loss orders.

Options can be a good way to earn regular income or they can be used as a speculative tool but either way they can be used as a very effective way to increase wealth if they are used properly.

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