potofgold's Blog

What is Options Trading?

An option is simply granting someone the right to buy or sell something in the future. In the case of Dow index futures options, when someone buys a Dow call option they are buying the right to purchase that underlying Dow future at a specific price, known as the "strike price," at a future point in time, known as the "expiration date." When an investor buys a put, they are essentially selling the market; a call essentially buys the market. Likewise, selling a put essentially buys the market; selling a call essentially sells the market.

In order to receive the opportunity to buy an option on this future, investors pay a "premium." If the market does not reach the strike price of the option, then that option will expire worthless on the expiration date. If the market does reach the strike price of the option on the expiration date, then the investor will be assigned the underlying future at that strike price.

Advantages of Options Trading

Flexibility. Options can be used in a wide variety of strategies, from conservative to high-risk, and can be tailored to more expectations than simply "the stock will go up" or "the stock will go down."

Leverage. An investor can gain leverage in a stock without committing to a trade.

Limited Risk. Risk is limited to the option premium (except when writing options for a security that is not already owned).

Hedging. Options allow investors to protect their positions against price fluctuations when it is not desirable to alter the underlying positon.

Disadvantages of Options Trading

Costs. The costs of trading options (including both commissions and the bid/ask spread) is significantly higher on a percentage basis than trading the underlying stock, and these costs can drastically eat into any profits.

Liquidity. With the vast array of different strike prices available, some will suffer from very low liquidity making trading difficult.

Complexity. Options are very complex and require a great deal of observation and maintenance.

Time decay. The time-sensitive nature of options leads to the result that most options expire worthless. This only applies to those traders that purchase options - those selling collect the premium but with:

Unlimited Risk. Some option positions, such as writing uncovered options, are accompanied by unlimited risk.

Overall Options present a good opportunity to formulate plans which can take advantage of volatility in underlying markets as well as price direction. However for most traders the disadvantages are significant and online futures trading is usually a better option.

Have you noticed that when someone’s trying to sell you something - such as a system for making money - they always make it look far easier than it is?
Let’s look at two Internet businesses, almost as diametrically opposed as it’s possible to be – Internet Marketing and Forex Currency Trading.

You’ve probably heard the old Internet adage – build a better website and they will come. Well it ain’t true!
You could put up a site advertising dollars for a dime and they still wouldn’t come – because they wouldn’t know where to look!

Let’s look at what you need to have in place in order to build a successful Internet marketing business.

First of all, you need a product. If you’ve been reading the recent Internet marketing blurb you’ll know you need a niche product.
Actually, the new thing is sub-niche but whatever they call it, you need a product for which there is high demand but low supply.

Finding a suitable niche is the hardest part of the whole process but let’s say you have a killer product, what else do you need?

The List.

Ask any Internet marketeer and they will say that the most important part of your business is your opt-in list.
For people to join your list you usually have to give them something of value such as a free eBook or report on a subject related to your main product line.
To keep them interested, you need to keep in touch with them offering them additional information, advice and tips.

Website.

To promote your opt-in list you need a website (although there are other ways of promoting your list, too) with features that will encourage people to sign up to your list.

You also need a killer website with killer copy to describe – and sell - your killer product. This may or may not be the same as the one you use for your opt-in list.

Killer copy.

Maybe you’re not a good copywriter. There are many eBooks on the subject that can help you or you can pay someone to write copy for you.

You need a domain name, preferably one with some relation to the product but good domain names are becoming increasing difficult to find.

Ads.

To get people to visit your website in the first place you need to register it with the search engines.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is an art in itself. You can mug up on the subject or pay someone to do the job for you (but be aware that not all experts are!).

You might also want to place ads for your list in newsletters and ezines. The better ones will charge you although you might get a free ad in return for an article.

Autoresponder.

To automate your business you need an autoresponder. These clever devices automatically send emails to everyone on your opt-in list at predetermined intervals, and contain predetermined copy.

For example, you could create a series of emails containing, say, five parts of a free course to be sent one a day over the first five days.
Then emails would be sent once a week advertising a different product each time.

Whenever anyone signs up to your list they automatically start at the beginning so everyone gets the full cycle of marketing material.

We haven’t even looked at affiliate sales and marketing but I’m sure you get the picture.
The basic idea of selling over the Internet sounds good but there’s a lot more to it than most people realise.

Forex Currency Trading

Someone said that trading is the last frontier, the last place where men and women can stand up and pit themselves against the world.

It sounds very Wild Westish but most of it is true! You win or lose entirely by your own efforts and if you win, it’s like having your very own bank.

However, even owning a bank is a business and you still have to work hard to put the money there – and to keep it!

Unlike Internet marketing where all your efforts, in one form or another, are geared towards making people join your list and then selling them stuff,
Currency Trading has no customers. That’s worth repeating – with currency trading, you don’t need customers.

No customers means you don’t need any of the associated accoutrements that go with Internet marketing such as:

Products

Web site

Domain name

Opt-in list

Ads

eBooks and reports

Autoresponder

Any other marketing aids

So far so good, but what do you have to do and what do you need? Well, you need to know what currency prices are doing.

You can get a list of prices at the close of each trading day free from many web sites. If you want to trade during the day – intraday trading,
you can get real-time prices for a nominal fee from several data suppliers.
In the foreign exchange currency market, commonly called forex, you can get this data and charting software free from many web sites.

Okay, that’s the easy bit. In order to trade currencies, you need to analyse the data and determine which way price is heading.
In other words you need a system and this will require study and dedication.

There’s lots of other stuff you have to know, too – trading terminology, margin, leverage, money management, order types, trader psychology and more.

But all of this is available in eBooks and courses and on the Net.

You also need some money upfront to fund your trading account. With forex you can begin with as little as $300-500 although you would be advised to start with more.

So while you don’t have the ongoing quest for new customers, new products and inventive sales techniques,
you do need some sort of education or training before you begin and you need discipline while you’re trading.

For more information on getting started with forex currency trading, go to: www.webkept.com

Making money takes work whether it’s online or off. Make sure you know what’s involved before you start and remember that the more you put into a business, the easier it gets.