Thursday, 8 August 2013

Something You Have To Know Before Answering The Question What Is Options Trading

By Floyd Grant


What is options trading. Individuals who research assorted investment prospects wonder what options' trading is. It appears as if it's easier to describe it if you have not dabbled in the stock exchange before. We explain in this article exactly what this outwardly complex asset prospect is all about.

Fundamentally, contracts exist for the broker to activate (call or put) in a scheduled time period. The trader or broker can opt to purchase or sell parts of the original stock in this time. Opportunities are separated into two groupings; calls and puts.

The calls and puts each have two sides or parties. There is the party that is buying the option and the party that is selling the option. Each participating side in this trade has its risk/reward profile. The option buyer is said to possess a long position while the option seller has a short position.

A theoretical proposition works well when explaining options trading to beginners. Let's say you are in a situation where you want to buy a real estate property. You identify the property and talk to the owner, but since you do not have the money to buy the property at that particular moment, you strike a deal with the property owner that you will buy the house at the end of three months at a price of $300,000. In return, the owner asks you to pay him $3,000 as an option.

Assume further that two different things that are correlated to the house happen within the span of the three months. One, it is discovered that the house was Mj's secret residence. This escalates the cost of the house to $4,000,000. Since you have a deal to buy at $200,000, the owner is obligated to sell at that very amount. On the other hand, maybe it is discovered that ghosts roam the inside of the house. You do not longer wish to buy the house. But since you bought an option, you lose the $3,000 option cash.

This theoretical example illustrates how exactly this form of trade works. When you buy an option you have a right to do something but you cannot be obligated to do it. In simple terms, an option is just an agreement which focuses on an underlying asset. In the example, the property is the underlying asset. However, in most cases, the underlying asset is usually a stock or index.

A call enables the owner of the option the means to acquire an asset at a particular pre-arranged fee at a set time. The purchaser assumes that the value of the asset will rise before the option terminates. Conversely, a put offers the option owner the means to trade an asset at a specific price at a set time. Purchasers of puts options expect the price to drop before the option lapses.

You can opt to partake in options trading as one of four leading members - buyers of calls, sellers of calls, buyers to puts and sellers of puts. Important terminology to keep in mind is that traders who purchase an option (either calls or puts) are named holders whereas those who sell are called or named writers. We anticipate that this editorial has revealed a frequently asked question, namely "what is options trading".




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