I've been investing for a long time, and more recently I've had some great success in the world of stock options. While they're risky, they can also be an extremely rewarding means of making money if they're handled right.
I would advise you to study up on options as much as you can before you begin trading them. Too many people learn the hard way by losing the entire amount of their investment. Don't let that be you. Here are a few words to the wise that I hope you'll take seriously.
The first thing I'd like to talk about is the time decay factor. Options tend to deteriorate in value over time due to the fact that as you're further out from the expiration date, the likelihood of volatility is higher.
Let's say you buy a contract for December while we're in the month of April. The stock price is at $13, and the strike price on the contract is $16. Clearly, there's a higher percentage chance that this stock will break $16 between now and December than there is between now and May. As a result, contracts with an expiration date that's further out will sell at a higher price.
Many smart traders also like to hedge their risk by doing things like straddles, or buying puts on their calls and the opposite as well.
It might end up cutting down on your profits a bit if you win, but this will really hedge you if you lose big time. I've seen way too many people lose everything they invested, simply for the fact that they failed to hedge.
Had they hedged by giving up just a few dollars, they would have kept 90% of what they lost.
The last thing you want to do is lose your entire investment with options. Sometimes, unfortunately, this happens if your option never surpasses the strike price. - 29969
I would advise you to study up on options as much as you can before you begin trading them. Too many people learn the hard way by losing the entire amount of their investment. Don't let that be you. Here are a few words to the wise that I hope you'll take seriously.
The first thing I'd like to talk about is the time decay factor. Options tend to deteriorate in value over time due to the fact that as you're further out from the expiration date, the likelihood of volatility is higher.
Let's say you buy a contract for December while we're in the month of April. The stock price is at $13, and the strike price on the contract is $16. Clearly, there's a higher percentage chance that this stock will break $16 between now and December than there is between now and May. As a result, contracts with an expiration date that's further out will sell at a higher price.
Many smart traders also like to hedge their risk by doing things like straddles, or buying puts on their calls and the opposite as well.
It might end up cutting down on your profits a bit if you win, but this will really hedge you if you lose big time. I've seen way too many people lose everything they invested, simply for the fact that they failed to hedge.
Had they hedged by giving up just a few dollars, they would have kept 90% of what they lost.
The last thing you want to do is lose your entire investment with options. Sometimes, unfortunately, this happens if your option never surpasses the strike price. - 29969
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