Truth about Stock Options

June 10th, 2006

Let’s look at the basic facts about options trading before we go any further. Like any human endeavor, options trading is best described in very careful language so that there’s no confusion about our meaning. First, let’s take a look at exactly what an “option” is. An option refers to just that, the option to purchase certain stocks or certain commodity items by a certain date. This means you do not gain controlling interest in the stock or commodity until that date. For this reason, options can, and often do, expire worthless.

There are two types of options contracts:
1) Contracts to buy blocks of stocks by a certain date
2) Commodity futures which are options to buy blocks of hard goods by a certain date.

If you have options on 10,000 bushels of corn, whoever sold it to you cannot sell it to someone else until the expiration date of your contract has expired. In exchange for giving you this right, they wrote the contract and took money from you. If you don’t exercise your options prior to the expiration date, they will expect full control of their corn again, and will sell it someone else.

What makes options such fascinating instruments are these facts:
1) With options

Ins and Outs of Options

June 1st, 2006

What is an Option?
An option is a traded security that is a derivative product.
By derivative product we mean that it is a product whose value
is based upon or derived from the price of something else. Since
we are talking about stocks, a stock option is based upon, among
other things, the price of the underlying stock.
There are also options on other traded securities such as
currencies, indexes and interest rates, but here we will limit
our discussion to stock options, or options based on stocks.
A distinguishing factor of an option

Option Trading Tips

May 28th, 2006

A LEAP (Long-term Equity Anticipation Product) is simply a long-dated option.

LEAP options that don’t expire upto 2 years into the future give the buyer much more time to be right about the future direction of a stock and at the same time offer tremedous leverage.

LEAP option trading has become quite popular in recent years because just like all options, LEAPs only cost a fraction of what it would cost to buy shares in the underlying stock itself, but give you the same amount of control.

As with all options though, time is the enemy (if you are a buyer) and over time options lose their value.

So how can we use LEAPS

ABCs Of Stock Options

May 24th, 2006

The ABCs Of Stock Options
As a performance incentive many companies are starting to offer employees the “option” to buy company stock as a part of their compensation packages. These “options” are referred to as stock options and they provide a unique opportunity for an employee to potentially increase his or her wealth along side company shareholders. The employee receiving company stock options should have a good understanding of the characteristics of the different types of stock options in order to maximize their potential benefits.
A stock option is a right granted by a company to an employee to purchase one or more shares of the company’s stock at a set time and predetermined purchase price. The employee benefits when the value of the company stock appreciates over and above the predetermined purchase price following the granting of the stock options, enabling the holder to purchase the company stock at a discount. There are two types of stock options: non-qualified stock options and incentive stock options

Option Trading Explained

May 22nd, 2006

Indeed, option trading is the most versatile form of investment in the world today. Its versatility has been the topic of many speakers all over the world. Terms such as “Covered Calls” and “Credit Spreads” have become well known amongst traders new and veteran alike.
Option Trading Explained - Simply put, it is the trading of option contracts on a particular stock.

Options Explained - A contract that allows you to sell or buy a stock at a predetermined price within a set time frame.
There is enough material written explaining the technical make up of an option and I shall not dwell into it further in this writing. The purpose of this writing is to explain to you what the effects of option trading is. … let’s go into Option Trading

Options Trading

May 21st, 2006

Welcome to LearningOptionsTrading.com