Beyond all
'hype' what is it that makes option trading so good?This is a question that I wish more people would ask, but
thing is not too many people know they even exist!
The main reason that I love option trading is that options provide
opportunity to turn a small or modest amount of money into a large amount of money quickly!
How is this possible you might ask?
Well before I get into
'how' that let me show you exactly 'what' options are.
Options are simply 'contracts' that give
buyer
right or choice (but not
obligation) to buy or sell shares in a particular company, at an agreed price, on or before a set date.
Now
thing is, as an option trader I am not interested in buying or selling stocks, I am only interested in buying and selling
options on stocks.
I want to buy an option for one price and then onsell it to someone else for a higher price and make a profit before
option expires.
Now whether or not I am able to do this depends on two main things:
1) Whether
underlying stock (the stock that
option is concerned with) goes UP or DOWN in price.
and
2) The type of option that I have bought.
Now, there are 2 types of options, CALLS and PUTS.
Call options give us
right to BUY shares in
underlying stock.
PUT options give us
right to SELL shares in
underlying stock.
As I said before, we are not interested in buying or selling
underlying stock, only in making a profit by buying
options (on a stock) and then onselling those options to someone else for a profit.
However,
only way we can make a profit is if
option itself increases in value.
So What makes options go up or down in price?
CALL options increase in value when
underlying stock goes UP.
PUT options increase in value when
underlying stock goes DOWN.
This may sound confusing if you are new to option trading, but basically what we want to do is to buy CALL options on a stock when we think it is about to go UP in price or buy PUT options if we think
stock is about to go DOWN in price.
If we are right and
stock moves in our desired direction, UP for CALLS or DOWN for PUTS, we will make money.