Learning About The Basics Of Options Trading At Options University

By Tao Ming Se


Interested to pursue a career in option dealing? If that's so let Options School handle your option dealing education. If you're acquainted with stocks or bonds trading, handling options is sort of similar.

If you're just learning the ins and outs of option trading, understanding the term can be hard and challenging initially. In brief, a choice is a contract that makes you able to buy ( call ) or sell ( put ) a stock or bond at a fixed cost ( strike price ) on or before a certain date ( the expiry date ).

There is a wide range of options you can choose from in the marketplace. With the American type, you can exercise your option on the purchase and the expiration. European options gives you the option to buy or sell only on the date of expiration. Although geographical in nature, buying options is not an indication that you have purchased a certain kind of option. As a rule of the thumb, American options are applicable to stocks and bonds while European options are for indexes.

Officially, options end on the Saturday after the third Friday of the month of expiration of the contract. However, the effective expiration day of the contract is on Friday as US markets are closed on a Saturday.

When buying or selling an option, you basically have a couple of alternatives-hold the option until it matures or exercise it before the expiration date. A huge percentage of investors prefer the former before the latter. Let us take a look at one scenario:

Supposed you purchase at $1 with a strike cost of $25. Since options contracts are excellent for one hundred share lots, buying options would be worth $100 and you are able to buy $2500 worth of stock using the option. If the option expires and the value of the stock costs $27, purchasing would be a reasonable move since the strike price is only $25. This interprets to a fast revenues of $2.

Another scenario would be if the price of the share doesn't hit $27 or the breakeven point of $26. What can be done is exercise the option so as to avoid losing any share.

If the price of the share is below $26, you can still make a put option for a reduced amount than what you paid and then recover some of your losses.

If the option has lost its value you can simply let the contract expire while wishing that the price tag would soar again. Nevertheless you ought to be resigned to the incontrovertible fact that your $100 is lost. Happily for you, options is only applicable for purchasing or selling and doesn't bind you to do either once your contract ends. Therefore , your potential risk is restricted to the price that you paid for the option at the onset.

But you have to be aware that the cost of the option isn't just dictated by the movement of the cost of underlying assets but also its expiry date. As the date of expiration draws near, the cost of the option has a tendency to slowly drop. So if you don't plan to hold an option till its expiration, it could be profitable selling it sooner than the expiry date.

Learning the fundamentals of trading options can be straightforward when you let Options College teach you the ropes of the business.




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