Hi, if you're wondering what options trading really is and what the pros and cons of partaking in it is then you're at the right place.
Everyone that is involved in the stock market wants to make huge profits and make a lot of money and ride into retirement with a fat bag of money or perhaps even retire early.
You could say that this is possible with options trading since there is no doubt that the biggest profits in the stock market are undoubtedly made with options trading. However, the same is also applied to losses and the reason for this is the leverage involved.
Before the leverage is explained and how you could benefit from Options Trading, Call Options and Put Options have to be explained first.
Call Options are what you would call derivative securities which means that the price of the option in itself is linked to something else intrinsically. What a Call Option does is that it gives the holder the right to buy an underlying asset at a price that has been set before a specific date or on the said date. To simplify, by more or less making a so-called down payment or deposit for a future underlying asset such as a stock.
Put Options are also derivative securities and works in the opposite way of Call Options. Put options give the holder the right to sell an underlying asset at a price that has been set before a specific date or on the said date.
What needs to be made clear here is that Options Trading is not for everyone and it is highly risky. However, there are major opportunities to make a lot of money if done right.
The power of options trading lies in the leverage. So what is exactly leverage? Well, is something that can be used very smartly to leverage our capital and it is also one of the most commonly used ways people leverage their own capital on the market. This will be illustrated with an example since it is the easiest way of explaining the power of leverage.
Imagine that you have $1000 to invest and you want to buy Stock A that has a price of $100 per share because you believe it will go up in price. You would only be able to buy 10 shares of Stock A for your $1000. Now if the stock goes up to $125 per share you can sell your stocks for a profit of $250 dollars (without taking commissions into account). By using leverage and the same analogy Stock A has a price of $100 and you want to buy 100 shares which would amount to $10 000. Instead, we could simply just buy an Option of that stock for $1000 and gain control of 100 shares of that stock or even multiple contracts and gain control of more shares. Now if the share price increases with the same amount to $125 per share, imagine the profit you could make.
However, it is very important to emphasize that you could lose the money you invested in the contract as well if the underlying asset does not move in the direction you wanted. Nevertheless, many traders feel that the upside is greater than the downside but this is something that requires a lot of knowledge before getting involved in Options Trading. It is recommended that you spend time educating yourself on this topic first by reading books or partaking in a high-quality options trading course that could increase your knowledge in the area before you start developing options trading strategies and hopefully start making big profits.
If you decide to begin with Options Trading, good luck with your trading career and be ready for the risks it involves. But, if done right it is definitely worth it.