Stock Options Game Principles

By Adam Bladder

Stock options are a contract that allows the buyer or seller of an option the right to exercise the sale or purchase of a stock for a contracted underlying price within a certain time period. Market conditions and future direction is analyzed in the Wall Street Journal, IBD, Stock Option Trader and other financial news services.

A call option gives the buyer the right to buy the underlying asset; a put option gives the buyer of the option the right to sell the underlying asset. If the buyer chooses to exercise this right, the seller is obliged to sell or buy the asset at the agreed price. An option trading tutorial or often free Wall Street reference guide is essential to successful trading.

Exercising the option at the right time if the market moves in your favor, determines if you win or lose. If, for instance, the underlying asset expires worthless, you only lose your protracted option price.

Statistical models are used to determine the actual value of options allowing one to gauge risk and tolerance levels more accurately. These models form a backbone for one?s assumptions in calculating risk vs. reward.

Low cost leveraging on a ?sure? bet is desirable, especially if one can get a handle on risk. Options provide that vehicle, and if used employing prudent controls, can be highly profitable. Low-cost leverage can be used to protect a position as well as take advantage of a developing market situation.

There are many indicators and tools used to predict price movement. Don?t try and use all of the indicators and signals at the same time since you will never see all of them in agreement, and you will get far more information than you can process. Information gleaned from stock option trader sources, the Wall Street Journal and other sources aid in option and stock trends.

Market behave in a cyclical manner and behave in a wave composed of individual data points. Leading and lagging indicators signal direction of the wave and helps positioning strategies.

Lagging indicators give a buy signal after the trend has been established whereas a leading indicator give a signal before a trend is initiated. With leading indicators there are many fake-outs. Relying on lagging indicators only would preclude one from catching large gains found early in a trend. - 29970

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