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What are derivatives? Derivatives are financial instruments that derive their value from underlying assets. There are a wide variety of derivatives and they are flexible instruments. Some derivatives for example may derive their value from other underlying derivatives. The main idea is that they do not convey ownership like stock shares, they just establish rights and obligations.
Derivatives are a little bit harder to understand than stock options. There are many different kinds of derivatives on financial markets. Even experienced investors may know some of them, but not all of them. I will briefly mention most commonly used, Options and Futures.
What is an option contract? What are stock options contracts? If you buy an option you have right but not obligation to purchase something, whatever it is that is specified on contract. In case of stock options you have right to purchase shares. Option contracts use specific terms. They also include a period of time in which you can exercise option, which means you can buy underlying asset. If you don’t exercise option on specified period of time, then your option expires worthless and you loose premium, money you paid for option. Why are options so famous, so useful and so important? Option trading can make you earn much higher return on your investment or they just can make you loose everything fast. In other words you can leverage your investment. You can have explosive profits, but you must be willing to accept high risks involved with option trading, you can loose it all fast. Remember that if you don’t sell option contracts that you bough or if you don’t exercise them on period of time specified on contract, then you just loose your entire investment. Sometimes people start trading options without even knowing this! All of above may sound a little confusing for new traders and investors. Stock options contracts may require you to study for a while before you can start to understand entire process or how they work. I didn’t mention here definitions like following. What is a call option? What is a put option? What is option delta? What are “Greeks”? What are options on futures? What are compound options? What are exotic options? And many, many more. Even when it sounds complicated for those that have no previous experience trading options, once you learn its inner workings and all processes related to them, you can profit big time from these derivatives. Remember that in any business knowledge is key to success.
What are Futures Contracts? A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell something, it could be a commodity or a stock for example, at a specified price on a particular date on future. For example you make an agreement to buy 100,000 shares of Microsoft Corporation at $50 each two months from now. At same time, someone somewhere is making same agreement but instead of buying, that person is selling. These contracts are traded through exchanges which take neutral positions so they don’t loose. What’s deal here? For example if today is January 1st, and you agree to purchase stocks above by April 21st under those specified terms and conditions, and if current stock prices is $45 per share check what happens. If stock price rises in value from January 1st to April 21st let’s say to $75 per share, then you receive contracts at $50 each share and immediately sell contracts at $75 per share so your profit is huge. If stock price goes down, you can sell contracts before April 21st so you don’t loose that much. This is another kind of derivative that is very profitable for many traders. A very important fact is that you can also leverage your trades with this kind of derivative and get better results, but at same time, you incur in higher risks.
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