Selling Options » Stock

Option Trading: Thinking “Outside the Box”

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:13:45 +0000

Wouldn’t it be great if we could buy an option with five months left until expiration and sell an option with 2 months left until expiration for the same price? You couldn’t lose. Well we can’t. I love options spreads so much I realized something very important. We can buy a spread that has a lot of time value left at almost the same price as we can sell one with less time value left. The reason really opened my eyes and gave me new insight into options. Here is what I came to realize.
I started comparing how expensive options were in relation to the other strike prices in the same month and to the other months. I wanted to know based on th e price per day which options were more expensive.
The first 1 or 2 option months, as everyon e knows loses time value quickly. The at the money strike prices are very expensive compared to the out of the mon ey strike prices. Since there is not that much time left, how much can they charge for an out of the money option? Not much.
The next several months, the opposite is true. Compared to each other, the strikes that are closer to the money are cheaper in terms of price per day than the options further out of the money. Let me explain it another way using the S&P market.
6 days left at the money option cost 12 points
6 days left out of the money option cost 2 points
70 days left at the money option cost 43 points
70 days left out of the money option cost 29 points
There is more than 10X the time left but the 70 day at the money option (43 points) is only less than 4X the price than the 6 day at the money option (12 points).
The 70 day out of the money option (29 points) is almost 15X the cost of the 6 day out of the money option (2 points) but only has 10X the time value. We will buy the cheaper options and sell the more expensive ones.
Sell 6 day at the money and sell 70 day out of the money. Buy 6 day out of the money and buy 70 day at the money. This will be done for a 4 point debit. We are now buying a spread that has 10X more time value than the one we are selling and are only paying 4 points for it.
When the 6 day options expire we can sell the next month to take in more premium, still keeping the 70 day option spread.
What goes up, must come down! We have all heard this befo re in reference to the laws of Gravity. We have laws in the commodity markets as well. What comes down, must go up! The greatest traders of our time like War ren Buffet know this. He is perhaps the greatest Stock trader ever. He had never traded commodities until a few years ago. He bought silver in the futures market. When the market went even lower he bought more. The “smart money”, commercials will not be scared into selling when a market they have purchased drops even further. They know better than anyone that a commodity has real value and will always be worth something.
There is a famous book, “You Can’t Lose Trading Commodities”. The author buys commodities and then just waits for the market to go higher. He would purchase more as the market fell.
You need a big bankroll for this. Personally I know corn won’t go to $1.00 but what if it did? I want to minimize the risk in case I want to end the trade.
I started trading the Soy Complex this way several years ago. Not with options. Strictly futures. I bought what was similar to a crush spread. I increased the contracts as the market went against me until the spread rebounded a little. Since I increased the contracts I didn’t need the market to come back to where I started. It only had to rebound to the next level.
Black Jack players did this until Casinos caught on and put limits on bets. It is a known fact that futures traders make good gamblers and professional gamblers make good futures traders. I am against gambling but even gambling done with a system is not really gambling.
These card players would bet something like this: $5 lose, $10 lose, $20 lose, $40 lose, $80 win. The losses add up to $75. They would win $80, so the profit is $5. Not a lot, but they would do this all day. Black Jack is just under 50% probability for the player.
The problem is there is a slight chance that you could lose 40 times in a row. Now with Commodities we have a 50% probability and we won’t lose 50 times in a row because the market can’t go b elow zero.
Now before I go an y further, I need to tell you that I am not recommending you double down on your trades. What you can find are mark ets that are near their lows where you can do a small scale trade. Spreads offer even better opportunities. They have a closer range (high to low).
By now you can see we only use this to go long a market since we can never b e sure how much a market can go higher. First we need to find a market that is low already so we won’t have to wait that long and also so there will be less capital needed. I prefer to trade this using options. There are many ways to do this. You could buy an option in a market like soybeans and choose how many cents the market will drop before you buy more. The problem is, an option is a wasting asset. The Theta (time decay) would cause you to lose money.
I use spreads so I am not paying for time decay. I will probably sell more Theta than I buy, so if the market does nothing I will make money just on time decay.

Options Trading Is a Opportunity For The Small Investor Too

admin — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 01:24:49 +0000

The stock market appeals to people for many reasons. Some see it as a quick way to make a nice nest egg to tuck away for their eventual retirement. Some see it as a way to live out their fantasies of being a powerful, corporate type. And some are actually more logical about it, seeing the stock market as a potential way to make money, if they play their cards right. They know that there are no sure things in life and nowhere is that more clear than in the stock market. But options trading is a opportunity for the small investor too.Options trading has grown in popularity, especially with the smaller investors over the course of the past ten years. Unlike other forms of trading that can require large amounts of venture capital, options trading can be accomplished with often a very small initial outlay. Of course, because they can be easily started, it can allow the uninitiated or poorly informed to get in well over their heads in a matter of a very short time. Not allowing yourself to understand the market before you make the first trade is financially foolhardy and personally dangerous. First of all, as the name implies, option trading is not buying actual stocks, but rather busying the right to own or sell them. The options trader can make the same profit with stock options that he would make as if the owned the outright stocks, but that also means that he would face the same risks if that stock did not do well on the market. As with other forms of trading, options trading will require that you learn some facts and make some decisions before hand. Know everything you possibly can about options trading, as well as trading in general. Know how to track stocks for movement and know how to watch for trends. Know what the basic types of options trading is- and understand how each works. And, as with any other type of trading, make sure you know and adhere to your personal limits, including your absolute loss cap. Do not overextend yourself, even if you just got a tip on a great stock. Options trading can focus on stocks that are heading in one of two directions, up or down. Call options will focus on rising stocks, while Put options focus on those on the decline. Both allow you the right to buy the option on a stock at a fixed price, but do not force you to do so. Knowing how to work this system to your best advantage is key.Invest in yourself, learn the basics and expand on that to become profitable in options trading.

Stocks for Options Trading: Low-Risk, Low-Stress Strategies for Selling Stock Options-Profitability (Hardcover)

admin — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:53:50 +0000

Review

Don’t learn the tricks of the trade. Learn the trade. – Anonymouslearn the tricks of the trade. Learn the trade. – AnonymousDont learn the tricks of the trade. Learn the trade. – Anonymouslearn the tricks of the trade. Learn the trade. – Anonymous

From basic option terms, to finding the best optionable stocks, to a winning investment plan creating and utilizing an option portfolio, Stocks for Options Trading: Low-Risk, Low-Stress Strategies for Selling Stock Options Profitably provides low stress tactics designed to make predictable profits when the stock market moves up, down, or sideways. Once learned these strategies allow you to accumulate assets steadily, and reach your investment goals. It clearly explains the features and risk/reward characteristics of basic options transactions, as well as hedging, tax benefits, correct use of margin and trading strategies. With this book you can create a portfolio that:Increases profitabilityProtects st (more…)

Trading Stock Options: Basic Option Trading Strategies And How I’ve Used Them To Profit In Any Market (Paperback)

admin — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:35:14 +0000

In Trading Stock Options, experienced option trader Brian Burns, explains the basics of stock options and shows you how to trade the most successful option strategies. As you begin your journey on the option path, you’ll have the luxury of real-life trade examples to show you the way. The diagrams and charts help turn the complex world of options into easy to visualize and simple to understand strategies that even the most novice of traders can utilize. Trading Stock Options will show you how you can use options to: * Get paid to buy and sell your favorite stock * Purchase stocks for less than their current price * Buy insurance on stocks in your portfolio * Profit when stocks lose value * Perform short-term trades with less money than trading the stock From the Introduction “Through my experiences with option trading, I have tried almost every strategy I could find. In this book, I will be discussing the strategies that I use the most and feel are the bes (more…)

Option Trading – With Maximum Profit!

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:19:32 +0000

Taking a look through the broadsheets of a business section you will notice that many companies offer their executive bonuses or part of their salaries for a good job. This is also known as “options”.
What actually are options? Do they have any link with stocks? What is meant by the phrase “options are exercised” In this article we shall learn as much as we can about the answer to these questions.
Similar to stocks, options can also be traded in a stock market but options holder can only buy or sell at a price range and in a specific time frame. Thus options are exercised. This is the major difference between stock trading and options. In stock trading you can buy or sell at any time of the day whereas in options you can only do this in a specified time frame.
Another difference is that options holders are specified people. Options are only awarded by the company to those who have shown good performance in the job. Unlike options, stock can become possession of anyone using buying or selling.
Nowadays negative based news surrounds the media related to option trading. You can hear news in which executives are often accused of backdating their options or gaining more profit by selling their options when stock value is reduced below normal price. Authorities and regulators have now started a search for these activities and already found many guilty executives and companies.
The advantage of options is that it shields the holder from the fluctuating market conditions at a particular time. This is because option can be bought at a lower price and when the prices go up options holder can then sell it to gain increased profit. Transaction is safer to move-in in terms that it can be predicted more easily than trading stocks.
Learning option trading is not very hard mainly because option trading moves in a specified time period and you don’t have to keep a close eye on changing market trends. You can wait for the value to go up and sell, therefore allowing increased gain in profits.
It should be noted that options have expiration date. Always keep an eye for the validity and sell them before its too late and instead of gaining you actually lose. This validity requires careful dealing. You don’t want to consider keeping options too long because of the risk that in the last days of expiration the market prices may fluctuate too much to end up in a loss. It is, thus, advisable that you sell when you find prices up instead for waiting to get more.
No matter how many advantages it has, option trading is a gamble to take. Though not as risky as the stock trading, you still need to keep your head straight and maintain a foresight to see which time is the right one to sell or till when you can keep these option in order to gain maximum profit without risk losing anything.