We?re half way there in this 10 part series on how to trade options, you are doing well keep learning, practicing and applying these strategies and you will soon find yourself able to successfully and profitably trade on a regular basis. Last week we looked at ways in which to time the entry of a trade so this week we will discuss how to get out at the right time.

There are several strategies and ways to exit a trade and you must decide which way (or ways) suits you. It is infinitely more difficult to decide when to exit a trade than when to enter it because it is at this time that you will either be making a profit or taking a loss! You will be faced with a myriad of different emotions while you are in a trade, most notably fear and greed. Fear appears in several different forms, fear of losing a profit already made, fear of getting out too early, fear of taking a loss and facing a mistaken trade. Greed also rears its ugly head by encouraging you to stay too long in a winning trade and possibly giving back some or all of your gains. There is an old adage on Wall Street that says ?Bulls can make money, bears can make money but pigs always get slaughtered.?

As I mentioned you must determine what suits you when it comes to deciding how much of a loss you can handle and how much of a profit you want to take. This is a direct reflection of your risk to reward ratio. For example, I often say ?I never feel bad when taking a profit?. I like to take profits when I see them and I generally have a fixed dollar figure or percentage in mind. Unless there is no good reason to exit the trade I will take my profits and if the trade keeps going in my direction after I have exited it doesn?t bother me. Conversely I always have a fixed % loss I will accept. Some people would not be able to handle leaving money ?on the table? so they may prefer to let their trades run, but then they may need larger stop losses as well. When trading options stop losses need to be much larger than when you trade stocks because options are so much more volatile. For example if you set a 10% stop loss it could easily get triggered during a normal intraday move. Bear in mind that there is not as much at risk when trading options as opposed to trading stocks. The capital investment is much smaller so a larger stop loss will not impact your account as much.

Some good rules of thumb are: First if there is profit on the table and the underlying stock breaks down or crosses below its 7 day moving average, take the profit. It is very painful to watch a profitable trade lose value while you wait for it to reverse. Don’t let that happen. However if market conditions have not changed and your technical analysis supports staying in the trade make sure you do not exit too early. Often the most outstanding profits are made by patient traders. Second, always exit the trade if you are at a 50% loss. Chances are if you are in a trade that is losing 50% it will keep going that way. It is imperative you preserve your capital in order to trade again. Third, always exit a trade if there is 30 days or less before expiration. During the month before expiration time decay can rob you blind of the value of your option.

I trust this has given you some things to consider when deciding to exit your trades, stay tuned for next week?s installment where we will discuss how to put together a complete trading plan.

US Government required disclaimer: Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person must receive a copy of the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Copies of this document may be obtained from your broker, from any exchange on which options are traded or by contacting The Options Clearing Corporation, One North Wacker Dr., Suite 500 Chicago, IL 60606 (1-800-678-4667).



By: Roger Cox

About the Author:

Okay, now that you’ve found a good stock option trading System you are ready to rumble. You’re ready to start ‘cleaning house’ and making huge returns sending you and yours into a rapid luxurious retirement in little under a year.

Your excitement is understood. And guess what? It’s actually possible because it has been done.

We are assuming that you’ve obtained a really good stock option trading system, a method that uses excellent high probability entries, well placed stop losses and a trailing stop method of maximizing profits Now it is time to talk about the ‘good stuff’, the secrets of money management in options trading, where the real profits are created.

Options trading money management is the heart and soul of making your account grow while preventing unwelcome disasters. Trade with intelligent money management and increase your confidence.

Okay, so let’s say your stock options trading system is actually making you profits. You feel that the system can be trusted and now you are anxious to ‘up the ante’ and start making bigger returns. So what do you do next?

Well first of all, keep trading but just keep your position sizes small, for now. It’s now time to do a little tweaking with your money management of your position sizes. Doing this right could possibly make you hundreds of thousands up through millions of dollars, literally. Doing options trading money management wrong can cause you a lot of misery, pain, and suffering and wipe out your account quickly!

In essence, you want to keep your position sizes (the total amount you have invested into an options trade position) even sized and never more than 10% of your options trading portfolio (on a small account and down to 1% to 2% options position sizes on very large accounts). With options, even if you kept your ‘bet’ size the same, say 20 contracts for each and every trade, you could make a great living off just one stock even if you never increase your position size. But if you wanted to taste a little of that compounded, ‘parabolic’ growth increase your options position size by 20% to 30% max every time you double your account (never increase it to 100%!).

In case you’re reading this and do not have a profitable Stock Option Trading System or stock there are excellent systems available through doing a little reasearch. You can try and figure a system out on your own or you can short cut success by obtaining some one else’s system or service and emulate what they are doing.

Here are some basic trading system approaches that can net out consistent profits: Trade trends. Trade pivot points. Trade swings in the direction of the trend. And that pretty much covers it for successful moneymaking, directional options trading that’s worth your time.

If your profits are bigger than your losses then you have a winning trading system. You don’t necessarily have to win more than you lose. Yes you can actually make money by losing more than you win if your winners are big enough and your losers are small enough.

The issue when trading options is that when you lose you can easily take a 25 to 50% ‘haircut’ or more of your position just by simply stopping out through stock price action. This also goes to show that you will want a system that doesn’t lose too often when trading options - remember that. Plus you’ll want your winners to be able to be really big so trend and pivot point systems can perform the best.

This brings up the issue of making a fortune in options trading without losing your shirt.

There is nothing worse than making a fortune in options trading then quickly giving that fortune back. If you’ve ever done that you can understand why people jumped off bridges and have tall buildings in 1929 during the great stock market crash. It’s a most miserable feeling because you get so high and excited, and happy from your gains and then if you lose that if worse than never having had obtained it in the first place. So promise yourself now that you’ll never put your self in that position and that you’ll aggressively guard your profits at all times.

So that said let’s figure out how to grow a trading account rapidly without losing it.



By: Chris Viscaya

About the Author:

The amount of stock options being traded in America is exploding! This is great news because there is far greater liquidity in the options market and many more money making opportunities for individual traders just like you. During the next ten weeks I will be writing articles on how you can profit from one of the fastest growing areas of financial investment available to individuals.

In case you don’t know what a stock option is let me explain. Simply, a stock option gives you the right to control the ownership of a stock for a fraction of the price to buy it. There are two types of options; the first is a Call Option which is the option to buy a share of a certain company for a predetermined price before a predetermined date. The second is a Put Option, which is the option to sell a share of a certain company for a predetermined price before a predetermined date.

For example if you purchased 100 shares in ABC Company that traded at $50 each, you would have to invest $5000 to buy those shares. However you could buy 100 Call Options priced at $5 each, with the right to buy ABC Company at $50 any time up to a date in the future (say November 16th) and you would control the same amount of shares for only $500. If the price of ABC Company goes up by $5 and you owned the shares you would have made $500 or 10% on your $5000 investment, however because the Call Options give you the right to buy the shares at $50 and they are now worth $55 the price of the options would go up $5 as well and you would have made $500 or 100% on your $500 investment. This example demonstrates the great leverage stock options provide.

Call Options are used when you expect the price of a stock to rise, if you expect the price of a stock to fall you can buy Put Options, which as mentioned before, give you the right to sell a stock at a predetermined price. So in the example above if the price of ABC shares fell to $45 and we had bought Put Options giving us the right to sell ABC at $50, the Put Options would be worth money because you could buy ABC shares in the market for a cheaper price than you could sell them for. Wonderful isn’t it, you can make money if the stock market is rising or falling!

To summarize a stock option has four components to it:

1. The underlying stock

The stock that the option is traded on (ABC Company in the example above).

2. The exercise date

The predetermined date, before which, you can use or exercise your option. Options always expire on the third Friday of each month (November 16th in the example above).

3. The strike price

The predetermined price you can buy the stock for ($50 in the example above). 4. The type of option

Either a Call or a Put option.

Here is the first key to successful stock options investing. It is very simple: practice, practice, practice. I cannot stress enough how important practice will be to your success as a stock options trader. Trading options is an inherently risky endeavor, however by learning the keys to successful stock options trading it is possible to mitigate this risk and maximize your gains. Options are a zero sum game, which means for every winner there has to be a loser. I’m sure you want to be a winner and not a loser, right? So you must take the time to learn the fundamental theories of options trading and practice the strategies behind options trading before you risk any of your hard earned capital in the market. It is only when you are winning seven out of ten trades on paper and you are confident in your trading plan and money management techniques that you should trade in the market for real. By the time you have finished reading these articles you will have a plan and know just what those money management techniques are. Look out for Key #2 coming soon.

US Government required disclaimer: Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Prior to buying or selling an option, a person must receive a copy of the Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options. Copies of this document may be obtained from your broker, from any exchange on which options are traded or by contacting The Options Clearing Corporation, One North Wacker Dr., Suite 500 Chicago, IL 60606 (1-800-678-4667).



By: Roger Cox

About the Author:

We often hear people saying that trading or investing in options is very risky. Yes, it is certainly no mean feat to trade or invest, using options as your investment vehicle. But is it really that risky in the first place? If trading or investing in options is really risky, then why are there so many individual traders or investors who make money from it? The only possible explanation is that those people had spent a lot of time and effort to study, understand and learn all they can about options in addition to the basic technical knowledge of how the market functions. They would have learnt how to increase their probabilities in making a profit and also reduce their risk to the minimum.

So what actually are stock option greeks? Why is it important to understand how they can affect the profitability of your trade or investment? Stock option greeks are actually sensitivities of the stock option to risks characteristics. These risks are actually factors that affects the pricing of the option. By learning how the stock option greeks relate to risk characteristics in addition to other basic technical analysis skills such as identifying the market trend, knowing when to and not to trade or invest according to timing ( Eg. Not to trade during lunch hours ), interpreting technical indicators correctly, have a risk and money management system to assist in making decisions when trading or investing ( This helps to eliminate and not involve your emotions that affect your trading decisions ) …etc We are able to have certain control over our risk exposures to leverage, time decay, volatility and interest rate risks. Each option risk characteristics, is represented by a greek word and they affect the option pricing differently. It is important to know whether you are purchasing a stock option at a under or over priced value as this can be another factor that will affect profitability of your trade or investment. You do not want to be in a disadvantage position at all times when trading or investing as the majority of the factors are against you and you have absolutely no control over them. ( Eg. Interest rates )

Mastering each risk characteristics will certainly help to reduce risk tremendously when trading or investing in stock options, what’s more, there are lots of stock option strategies that can be utilized once you understand the mechanics of the stock option greeks and make them work for your trade or investment.



By: Ben Ang

About the Author:

There are four different types of players in the stock option trading game. They are buyers of calls, sellers of calls, buyers of puts, and seller of puts. The buyers are called holders, and the sellers are called writers. Buyers of calls are said to have a long position, while buyers of puts are said to have a short position.

Calls are useful in speculation, and puts are useful in hedging. It is all going to depend on the strike price of the underlying asset on the expiration date. If all of this makes perfect sense to you, there is not much need to read on, but if it sounds a bit hazy, a little review might be in order.

The Stock Option market has its own unique language. Like many other activities, an understanding of the terminology used is essential. In many cases, it is a rather simple concept hidden behind an unknown term that leads to confusion, and makes the activity appear a lot more complex than it actually is. The following are a few definitions that might help take away some of the mystery. - Calls: A call is basically a contract giving you an option, but not an obligation to purchase a block of stocks at a set price on or before a certain date. In understanding a call, it is important to remember that you are not obligated to make the purchase. You can exercise your option or not. - Puts: A put is the opposite of a call in that it is a contract to sell a block of stock at a set price on or before a certain date. Again, this is a choice. You can make the choice not to sell. - Holders: This is the name given to the buyers of the contracts. It is the holders that give the option trading market its name since they are the ones who actually are in a position to make the decision to exercise their options. - Writers: Since it is a “trading” market, two parties are necessary. If someone is buying, than someone else must be selling. The writers are the sellers of the contracts. It is important to remember that the writers are not the ones with the options. They do have an obligation to honor the contract if the holder decides to exercise his option. - Long Position: In stock trading, long position means that you are holding the stock in anticipation of it increasing in value. - Short Position: In stock trading, short position means that you are holding the stock in anticipation of it decreasing in value. - Underlying Asset: The underlying asset, or as it is sometimes called, the underlying, is the actual stock or security that is the object of the option contract. The contract is said to derive its value from the intrinsic value of the underlying asset. - Strike price: This is the price at which the option contract will be purchased or sold. If you purchase an option to buy, or make a call, at $10 , but the value of the underlying asset is only $8, you are $2 under the strike price, and most likely would not wish to exercise your option. - Speculation: This is the risk taking side of option trading. It is generally associated with calls and long positions. It essentially means that you are expecting a stock price to rise higher than the strike price. - Hedging: This is the cautious side of option trading. It is generally associated with puts and short positions. You are anticipating that the value of the underlying asset will drop below the strike price. It is called hedging because it is often used to protect an investment, or hedge your bet, by maintaining an option to sell at a certain strike price should the underlying asset take a serious drop in value. In other words, you are able to bail out before your loss becomes too large. - Expiration date: This is the date on which your option must be exercised or it will be lost. It is the deadline. In the stock option market it is usually the third Friday of a month.

The above are a few of the terms that are used in the stock option trading market, and by understanding them completely you should be better armed to take a closer look at this interesting investment opportunity.



By: Casey Yew

About the Author:

Learning how stock trading works is an important part of stock investment. Even if you don’t plan to pursue stock trading as s full-time career, knowing the ins and outs, and the rules that govern online and real-time stock trading is essential.

For beginners, having a working background on stock trading will make the difference in getting the best day trading stock tip and information, or losing big or a wrong stock pick. To jumpstart your stock trading education, signing up to an online trading firm is your first stepping stone.

Sign up with online trading firm that offers free registration for your account. Choose a site that offers clear and easy instructions. Don’t rely on sites and traders who state all you have to do is sign up, punch your credit card credentials, then sit back and relax, and let them do all the hard work. That could be a fraudulent operation in the works. So choose one that you’re most comfortable with and know to be reliable. Many sites will also show the steps and ways for you to manage your stocks, keep track of your stock investments, as well as offer the best day trading stock tip updates, and other stock options and news.

There are mostly trading sites that also offer online stock services to support beginners who want to learn more about buying ans selling stocks using vital stock reports and day trading stock tip updates and information. Many online brokerage sites offer real-time day trading stock tip and stock quotes to keep you informed of the shifts and movements on the floor. Some may even offer after hours stock tip and updates for your mutual fund options and stock investments.

Of course, nothing beats a site that offers ways for you to get firsthand information from the market. These sites offer day trading stock tip developments, stock quote data, and other stock trading information. Getting real-time stock information is essential especially for day trading and direct stock investments.

However, trading stocks online is not as instantaneous as it is on the floor. A lag time of twelve (even up to twenty-four hours!) may pass from the moment you act on that day trading stock tip you got, till the offer is closed, twelve or even twenty-four hours, may have elapsed. If your stock firm doesn’t tell you this, consider yourself forewarned especially if the stock you’re interested moves in a rapid clip. That day trading stock tip you got could become worthless.

The reason for this is because the internet cannot duplicate the market hours. So while you’re learning the ropes, avoid stocks that are volatile and make the most of daily news and day trading stock tip updates available to you. Keep a pulse on what’s happening on the stock market floor so you you can make the necessary adjustments.

Keep yourself updated with the latest stock information is the best way to make any day trading stock tip work for you. And keep this in mind: When you’re starting, start small, buy safe and keep away from the shares that swing wildly. As your experience grows, you can develop a working stock trading strategy, so be patient and learn as much as you can, when you’re learning about stock trading.



By: Zachary Riff

About the Author:

Have you ever considered investing in the stock market? Even with the way the stock market is moving? With today’s economy, stock trading is extremely risky for beginners. If you don’t know what you are doing in stock trading, you can lose your investment very quickly.

There is an alternative that many new investors do not know about. It’s called “Binary Stock Option Trading.” Basically, Binary Stock Options only have two outcomes. Either you win a certain percentage of your initial deposit or you lose your initial investment, but when you lose, you still walk away with a small percentage of your initial investment.

The best part of Binary Stock Option Trading is that you are now able to do this online with a minimum investment of $30. If you are new to stock trading, Binary Stock Option Trading may be the way to go. You do not need to know much about the market or how to read complicated charts and graphs. Also, you do not need to download any complicated trading platforms, as there are easy to use online trading platforms that you can use directly online.

If you are interested in learning more about Binary Stock Option Trading, visit www.EZmoneytrader.com to learn some simple techniques that will guide you to making money online with Binary Stock Options. Investing can be extremley profitable when you know how to invest properly. The number one reason why new investers lose money is because they were never taught how to make it. Happy Trading.



By: Mike Edwards

About the Author:

The concept of Stock option trading was introduced in the 1970’s, and it became popular in 1980’s. However the market losses of 1990 caused a stop in this type of trading, the recent concept of electronic trading (online trading) made them again popular to the public.

Stock options are options, which use stocks as the fundamental instrument. Like all types, the stock options can be defined using several related phrases that are unique to options trading markets. Strike Price, also known as Exercise Price, is a common word used to describe stock options.

Strike Price is the fixed price at which the owner of an option can buy (‘call option’) or sell (‘put option’) the underlying commodity. A call option and a put option is the right to purchase and sell 100 shares of a particular stock respectively.

It is not allowed to own puts or calls indefinitely. The expiration time ranges from one month to three years, and many points in time in between. These periods depend on which stock they represent.

There are a lot of risks coming with the stock options trading. One major risk is that the customer is obligated to trade in the strike price. That is, if a customer wants to buy the underlying stocks, he or she must do it on the strike price though the actual market stock price is lesser than that. Likewise, the customer needs to sell his stock at the strike price though the actual stock market price is far higher.

This article is written for Orient Financial Brokers (OFB), licensed and regulated by Central Bank of the UAE since 1997, to conduct brokerage in Foreign Exchange, Commodities, etc.



By: Russel Rashid

About the Author:

Call and What?

An option is a “legal financial contract”. The holder has the right, but is under no obligation, to accrue or sell a predetermined number of stock shares. This is to be done at a price that has been predetermined which is called a strike price. It is also to be accomplished on or before a specific date.

There are just two basic types of stock options, the European and the American. An American stock option is a contract that can be exercised between the purchase date and the expiration date.

Each stock option is designated by the following:

• Name of the stock

• Strike price

• Expiration date

• The premium that was paid for the option plus the broker’s commission

Two of the most popular types of stock options are Calls and Puts. If you own a call you have the right but are not obliged to buy a stock at the strike price at any time before the stock option expires. If an option expires, it is useless and worthless.

The other most common stock option is the PUT. This is almost the exact opposite of a Call. If you own a put you have the right, but are not obliged, to sell a stock at the strike price any time before the expiration date of the option.

How in the world do people trade these stock options? Stock options traders will rarely exercise their option and purchase (or sell) the underlying security. Instead, they will buy back or sell the option. This saves on commissions.

Options officially expire on Saturday following the third Friday of the month in which the option expires. Shares of stock have a 3-day settlement interval but option settle the very next day. The option has to be traded by Friday in order to settle on Saturday.

Another thing you may hear about with regards to stock options is volume and open interest. Volume is the number of contracts that are traded on any given day. The open interest figure is the number of contracts that are outstanding at any given time.

For those who are curious, a Put-Call theorem has been formulated which defines the following relationship for the price of puts and calls:

P=C-S+E+D

• P= the price of the put

• C= the price of the call

• S= the stock price

• E= the present value of the exercise price

• D= the present value of the dividends

An ordinary investor will see a violation of the put-call parity from time to time. This is not a time to instantly buy, but it is a reason for you to check your quotations for timeliness because as you will probably see at least one of them has expired.

If you want to get into the stock option trading business, then you should probably start by writing covered call option for stocks that are currently trading below the strike price of the stock option.

There are many places on the Internet if you do a search for stock options where you can set up an account for just a small amount of money. My advice to you is to do your research well and only put up as much money as you are willing to part with.



By: Benjamin Wise

About the Author:

A lot of traders now favor option stock trading because of its many advantages. For one it can be highly profitable if used rightly, it offers the investor more flexibility and a larger option to diversify. This trading system offers more protection to the portfolio gives more control to the investor and offers a higher possibility to generate more returns on investment. They can be used under any market condition. They offer the investor the advantage of making returns on a change in stock price without actually owning the stock. Options stock trading can be used in combination with other option contracts and/or other financial tools to maximize returns.

Furthermore, a lot of trading is done on the floor of the stock exchange; one of such is referred to as stock option trade. Sometimes the trading could just be more of speculative activity. Speculative activity trading is done on stock exchanges through stock options trading. The term option in stock parlance means “a right”. There exists the right to sell as well as the right to buy. In a deal involving an option, the right to buy or sell a certain amount of securities, within a particular period at a given price can be bought off a dealer. If the purchased right was an option to buy securities it would be called a “call option”. If the right was the option to sell, it is called a “put option”. Instances where the two possible options are combined, to buy or sell a certain quantity of securities at a particular price up to a given future date, it is then referred to as “a double option”, or “a put and call option”

Speculative activity or stock option trade is carried out for anticipated profit. Here is how it works. If a speculator expects the price to go up, he buys a call option. This allows him in future when the price has arisen to buy at the old lesser price and sell at the higher prevailing price. When the reverse happens and a drop in price is anticipated he buys the put option.

When a speculator notices that his predicted or expected rise or fall in price did not occur he can chose not to exercise his right or stock trade option that he had purchased. The party that grants or sells the stock option trade to the speculator is paid a premium for granting it.

This premium is also called the option money. This is the fee that is earned by the trader who grants the speculator the stock option trade. When the speculator desires not to exercise his option he loses the option money or premium. But his loss is restricted to the option money alone. Stock option trade is useful for speculators who want to protect their capital and yet seize advantage of fluctuations in prices. He has the choice to decide whether to exercise his option or not.



By: Wincent Loh

About the Author: