Saturday, November 29, 2008

Profiting From Options Trading

By Walter Fox

Learning to invest in the stock market can be difficult for beginners. Normally, a great deal of experience is required. Access to someone with knowledge of the markets is can be helpful too. In particular, options trading can be quite complex.

Option trading is much more advanced in the whole scheme of the investing industry. However this article will try to give you the basic on the process so that you can make a decision for yourself whether or not you want to pursue this tactic.

The first thing to learn is the different types of options trading that are available. The two types are called call options and put options. The concept of options is similar to buying and selling stocks except for the fact that you are only buying the right to buy or sell and not the actual stocks themselves.

You would buy what is called a call option which gives you the right to purchase a companyas stock. The major difference with this is that you buy precisely one hundred shares and you by no means have to follow through on the deal.

Once you have bought your stock options, then you will hopefully see stocks rise thus giving you a profit. The call option is valid until a deadline. So you can either use it until the deadline or exercise your right to use the option, which usually consists of buying or selling at a strike price which is another story.

The second category of stock options trading is called put options. Buying a put option gives you the ability to sell one hundred stocks at a predetermined strike price. This may be difficult to understand at first as it somewhat contradictory to traditional stock trading.

Typically, people buy put options when they anticipate or hope that the stocks will go down. This will actually give them a profit by being able to sell their stocks at a higher price or exercising their option. Often people will resort to this method because it actually reduces your risk of loses.

To summarize this article, there are significant benefits in investing in futures and options trading. If you know what you are doing and are able to get good advice from someone knowledgeable, options trading can be very profitable for you. - 15432

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