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Stock market options trading basics

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stock market options trading basics

Option Trading options continuing to see a rise in popularity with traders-- and it's easy to see why. You can take small amounts of capital and leverage it up for fast gains. You can also learn how to hedge your portfolio against drops in the market. Or stock you could take the other side and become the "insurance salesman," collecting premium every month. But with all of the opportunities, there is a fundamental lack of understanding as to how the options market works. This guide about Option Trading Basics will get you the information you need to become a great options trader. Capital markets are risky by nature. Stocks go up, stocks go down-- sometimes they crash. Due to this risk, some investors want to remove some of that risk, stock are willing to pay a risk premium for it. It's like car insurance. Driving is risky, and to protect yourself, you pay a risk premium to the insurance company so if anything market bad happens, you don't lose a ton of basics. Options are also a derivative. That means their price is derived from something. That "something" is simply the relationship with the underlying stock, and the risk stock people are willing to pay. Options are contracts that have an expiration date. If the buyer of the option does not use exercise that option before the date, then it will be rendered null and void. Since options are stock contract, there will always be two sides to each trade. There will be an option buyer, and an option seller. The buyer is looking to pay a premium to transfer risk. The seller is willing to accept that risk for a certain premium. Because there are so many stocks and so many kinds of options, it makes sense to standardize the contracts. Because the market is so big, it wouldn't make sense to have thousands of different people trying to call each other to match their needs. To solve this, we have a centralized options clearing organization to market match buyers and sellers. This organization is known basics the Options Clearing Corporation OCC. All Standard Options are Cleared Through the OCC. There are differnet markets like the CBOE, Nasdaq, and the NYSE, but they are all participant exchanges within the OCC. With options you have two extra components: Because of these extra parts, you can make bets on the direction of the stock, how fast the stock will move, and how long will it market to get there. Understanding how prices move over time will get you an edge in the options market. A stock represents trading share of a company. And because it's a fraction of a company, there is a fixed amount of stock-- this is known as the float. With options, there is no fixed amount-- it is theoretically unlimited. The options time an option is created is when two parties come to an agreement on the risk pricing and they transact with one another. When basics happens, open interest stock created. The open interest in an option refers to all contracts that are open and haven't been settled. Because options are transactional in nature, there must be something to transact! For standardized options the expiration date is on the third Saturday of that month. This defines what "kind" of option it is, whether it's to buy or sell the underlying. A call option gives the buyer the right to purchase shares at a certain price, and it gives the seller the obligation to buy at a certain price. A put option gives the seller the right to sell shares at a certain price, and it gives the seller the obligation to sell at a certain price. The key difference lies in what the contract transaction looks like-- whether they want to buy or sell stock. Due to high demand from retail investors, most all brokerages allow option trading in cash and margin accounts. There are a few brokerages out market that still limit your ability to trade different kinds of option strategies. This is a bad idea because it removes your ability to manage risk through options adjustments. Either get full access to all strategies, or find options new broker. If you have a short option position on, there is a chance that you can get assigned. Keep in mind, that chance is very low. If you are short a put option, you will market shares put to you, and money will be debited out of your account. If you are already short the stock, then the short will be removed from your trading. If you are short a call position, trading will have to come up with the shares to sell to the call buyer. If you already have the shares in your account then they will be removed and money will be credited to your account. If you don't have the shares you will be assigned a short stock position, and short margin will come into play. The first way is directional trading. This is where traders will use the leverage and risk structure of options to make a bet on the movement in a stock price. There are advantages to options over stock because you can dictate exactly how much you are willing to risk on a bet. The second way is volatility trading. This is where traders use the other two options risk and time-- to make bets on the market. If a trader is expecting less movement than what the market is pricing in, it's often called income trading. These two kinds of money-makers are not exclusive. You can find ways to make bets on both direction and volatility, which gives you a distinct edge over other traders. Absolutely, but there are trading. Because you are using options on a short term basis, there are extra issues to deal with. The first risk is liquidity risk. If you are going to daytrade options, you must make sure that the options you are trading are very liquid so you can enter and exit very easily. The other risk is volatility risk. If you are trading in size, you become much more sensitive to movement in the implied volatility of the option. That means the profits you expected to make may vary much more than you think. Also keep in mind that these are leveraged instruments, so trading you are basics successful at daytrading, the leverage can hurt your account. Stock and option combinations are great opportuniteis for investors as they offer ways to get better prices on stocks they really want to own. The first is the cash-secured put. This is a trade where the investor is short a put with the intention of getting assigned. This is a great way to enter into a stock on a reduced basis. The second is the buy-write, or covered call. This is a combination of long stock with a short call that is "covering" the stock. The premium received in the stock helps to reduce the cost basis of the position, and removes some of the overall risk in the position. The third is a protected put. This is a combiation of long stock with a bought put. The investor pays a premium to remove downside risk underneath the strike price of the option. This is a good position if the investor wants to eliminate downside risk on a position but still wants upside exposure. The fourth is a collar. This is long stock paired basics a covered call and a protected put. This trade has limited risk from the protected put and limited reward from the covered call. This allows the investor to keep the stock position on but with much less volatility. Brand New to Options? Learn the Basics Here Option Trading is continuing to see a rise in popularity with traders-- and it's easy to see why. What is an Option, Anyways? Options are a contract. It's a contract between two parties to exchange something. What are they exhanging? The Risk Exchange in Options Trading. How the Price of an Option is Derived. The only decision you make when trading stock. Get our Free Video Training Here. Learn how to make money trading options, no matter where the options goes. The different risks of stock and option trading. stock market options trading basics

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