Option Trading With Example

Stocks have been on a kind of wild ride for the past year, with volatility that no stock trading course could have prepared investors for. The up-and-down, whipsaw motion of the major indices has meant that good stocks have been hurt and bad stocks have been devastated. An options course will show how to benefit from the downturns in the markets where the stock trading courses cannot. That is right, when stock traders are losing money, you will be able to use your stock options training knowledge to make more money! Understanding the two most basic options strategies can help you make bigger returns for a lot less capital. First, there are call options, which are securities based on underlying stocks. Call options profit when stocks move up, so they're pretty easy for most traders to understand.

A call option gives the trader the right to purchase a stock at a fixed price for a set period of time but does not obligate them to do so. The trader can trade the value of the options contracts or can use them as a vehicle by which to purchase a favored stock at a discounted price. Call options are often referred to as 'surrogates' for stocks because you can benefit from the upward movement of a stock at a fraction of the price. However, the often overlooked profit player is a put option, which is also based on an underlying stock and increases in value when that stock goes down. You can also trade put options for the value they carry inherently, but they also afford you the right, but not the obligation, to sell a stock at a set price. That means you can sell a low-valued stock at a premium price.

In addition, put options can act as a kind of insurance to protect any stock that you do have. Let's say you have 100 shares of stock XYZ, which is trading at $10. If you purchase 1 put option contract at the $10 level, that means is if XYZ drops down to $5, your put options will afford you the opportunity to sell the stock for $10; even though it's trading for half of that. While the most basic tenet of a stock trading course will tell you to 'buy low and sell high', day-to-day stock trading has lost any sort of rhyme or reason and there are few, if any, fundamental reasons for the huge intraday swings we are seeing. The fortunate thing is that this kind of frenetic atmosphere is when stock option strategies profit most. Online training with a basic brokerage account will allow you to make terrific profits from put and call options trading that the stock trader would not realize. Options are not limited to individual stocks either as you are able to trade options on the major indices as well as exchange traded funds (ETFs). This translates to your being able to trade an entire sector or index with less capital. Do not limit yourself to trading just stocks in today's volatile market by taking a stock trading class; increase your opportunities by adding options trading to your portfolio today!