Commercial hedgers are corporations and sometime individuals, that seek to ensure the stability of a given commodity by taking a position in the commodities market. Take peas for example, and the hedger, a food processor who cans them. If pea prices go up the hedger ends up having to pay the farmer or pea dealer more. Because it is basically a cash commodity, to protect himself against higher pea prices, the processor can “hedge” his risk exposure by buying enough pea futures contracts to cover the amount of peas he expects to buy. Since cash and futures prices do tend to move in tandem, the futures position will profit if the price of peas rise enough to offset cash pea losses.Speculators are the second major group of futures players. These participants include independent floor traders and investors. A speculator is a person, or more likely an institution, that purchases or sells the commodities based on factors other than simply analysis. Whereas investors will focus, by and large, on detailed analysis.Gambling With Your FuturesFive Reasons To Roll the DiceSince most individual traders are speculators, here is a list of some of the advantages and disadvantages of the futures market over other investment possibilities. 1. The possibility exist that a person can make more money faster in the futures market, because  the speed of prices tend to change faster than stocks. Conversely, bad judgment can cause one to suffer greater losses than traditional investments.2. Futures are highly leveraged investments. The trader only puts up about 15-20% as a margin, yet still being able to ride the full amount of the contract. Unlike stocks where at least 50% of its value has to be put up, and the investor pays interest on the difference between the margin and the full contract value. 3. For the most part there is no inside trading. Everyone has the same insiders information on the weather, for example. This is an open outcry market, very public, which insures a fair outcome.4. Commission charges on futures trades are small compared to other investments, and the investor pays them after the position is liquidated.5. Most commodity markets are very broad and liquid. Transactions can be completed quickly, lowering the risk of adverse market moves between the time of the decision to trade and the trade’s execution. I hope this has helped in your research. I don’t profess to being an expert, but I do know of some. I obviously don’t have the time to go into all the details now, but at my site  Market Mentalist you will find all you need to know about investing online. I have a page devoted to futures. There is access to some of the top trading systems available including software, books, newsletters, and Forums. Whether you are an inquisitive novice or a seasoned pro Market Mentalist offers the online investment resource you just might be seeking.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange has estimation that over 80% of all options is expiring worthless. Those who are selling options or option writers collect the premium paid by the option buyer. Trading options strategies’ option writing is often used for hedging purposes and reducing risk. The option writer has unlimited risk and yes, a limited profit potential. You see, trading options strategies are not too perfect at all. The premium of the option minus commissions is just insignificant. In appropriate conditions that are necessarily considered are selling out-of-the-money options instead of buying them. Why?

In trading options strategies, when selling out-of-the-money options, time value works beneficially. The buyer of the option pays a premium for that option. The longer the buyer holds the option, more time decay works against him more importantly as the option approaches the expiration. Over time, the option will lose 100% of its time value.

Along with time decay, trading options strategies in option selling make small traders to often purchase options. According to history, small traders, as opposed to the large commercial or fund traders, are on the losing side of the trade. Statistics show that small traders tend to buy options, as among the most common is the call options.

Options sellers do not have to be concerned so much with the place where the price will go. They actually need to consider more importantly where the price will not go. Trading options strategies need to focus on the highest probability of expiring worthless. Heritage West has the fundamental and technical analysis to project the general direction of the fundamental futures market, where options will be sold.

With trading options strategies, you surely know how important time value is. As an option seller, time value is you product. As time passes, the option’s time value will erode. The first stage may go slow, but it will later on accelerate towards the end. The movement in the futures market can temporarily have an effect on the value of the option too. Higher movement can temporarily propel the value of the option higher. Futures prices moving lower will hasten the drop of the option.

In trading options strategies, volatility is among the most important factors to consider when determining which options to write. It is the measure of the rate and magnitude of change in the price of an option, relative to the change of the underlying futures contract. Once volatility is high, the premium on the option is directly proportional to it. There are option traders who don’t understand how volatility influences the price of options and how to utilize volatility to gain profits.

Trading Options Strategies are too sensitive issues to study. Nonetheless, once you come to understand any of them, as starting with option selling, it will be a good start for your success.

My pal was a normally a mild-mannered sort – very reflective, always weighing the consequences rationally before acting. In short, a logical thinker.

Imagine my dismay when that one phrase, “trading options”, triggered this unprecedented tirade. You’d think I’d insulted his family or something even worse.

After a few seconds had passed, I realized the reason for my friend’s outburst. He, like so many other investors, had only lost money trading options.

Why? Because he’d never discovered the number one option trading secret: 3 out of 4 options expire worthless. You read that correctly, when you trade options as a buyer, you have a 25% chance of making money, and a 75% chance of losing money.

This is why professional traders and investors favor the option strategy of selling options, rather than buying them, in hopes that the trade will go their way.

“Wait a minute. How can all of those options just expire worthless? I’ve seen ads for 100’s of option strategies and trading systems on the internet. They can’t all be losing money.”

I had to smirk. Now I really had him thinking. He knew that I hadn’t yet told him the big “secret behind the secret”, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“I have one word for you, my doubting friend”, I said,…”Time”. “When you become an option seller, you have time working FOR you, instead of against you. The reason is simple – as puts and calls get closer and closer to their expiration date, they lose their time value, due to “time decay”, or theta, the Greek letter that option traders use to denote the % of change in time value of an option.”

This is true of any option, no matter if you’re buying or selling call options or put options, or using a covered call strategy. It’s one of the big secrets of options investing that doesn’t get written about too often.

Because of the power of time decay, you can actually guess wrong about the direction of the market, or a stock, and you’ll still make money selling a call option or put option, as opposed to the buyers on the other side of the trade, who not only have to guess the stock’s future price movement correctly, but must do it BEFORE the option expiration date.

This helps to explain why even conservative investors use the covered call strategy, which is widely considered one of the most conservative option trading strategies around.

To sell covered calls, you must own at least 100 shares of the underlying equity, since each call contract corresponds to 100 shares of the underlying stock.

This is a tool you can use to hedge your portfolio, and lower your risk, by receiving “call premium” money, which lowers your break-even cost basis.

Selling covered calls is a short-to-mid-term option strategy you can use to double and triple your yields on new stock purchases, and/or to earn more income from your existing portfolio.

2. I had done the same for USD/CHF. Since I had bought NZD/USD, I had bought US$80 Under for the binary option. So this means that in the situation that USD/CHF falls, I lost money from my convention forex position, at least I still win some money from my binary option.I had bought US$80 for USD/CHF Under trade for Daily expiration, strike price is 1.014, odds is 1.78. This means if USD/CHF goes below 1.014 by 5am China time, I will win US$142.40. If not I will lose US$80, but again I may gain much more from my forex position.

Official website: TradingEducationProgram.org

The financial markets are a similar system. It works best for the investor when trading practices are in balance, and Options Trading is the way to achieving balance for sustained, long-term returns.

If you have invested in the stock market for a while, you are probably pretty frustrated by wrongly guessing a stock’s move more often than not. Psychologically, most investors will bet on an upward move, and there certainly are a lot of researchers and advisors out there who will tell you things like “you can’t miss with this one – the fundamentals are just that good.” The problem is that there are so many things that can happen to a company that are simply not predictable: A product recall, an insider scandal, unexpected regulatory problems – the list goes on. Options trading takes this into account and hedges the bet.

Options trading is similar to a gambler hedging his bets on the roulette table by splitting his money between red and black, odd and even, certain series and other alternatives. Playing in this manner does not result in a sudden huge win, but rather in steady, sustained profits. That’s the difference between a novice and a professional.

The psychology of investing is similar to betting on a crap game. You can win by betting that you’ll win, or by betting that you’ll loose. There are only a few gamblers who bet on the latter, and that is similar to short-selling in the markets, i.e., betting on a stock’s downward move. If you are a more sophisticated investor, you may have tried that. How did that work out for you?

The point is, you are only betting in one direction, and that’s the problem. Options are an exciting alternative and the perfect way of hedging your bets and moving from guessing to safe investing. If you are a beginning investor when it comes to options trading, you would do well to subscribe to a reputable service that will do all the research and give you recommendations as to what moves to make and when.

Options research includes many different elements – not just “the stock will move either up or down”, but scenarios that take into consideration how long the stock may trade in a certain range, whether it will stay low for a few months but rise in the long term, whether it will trade cautiously until earnings are achieved, and then take off or fall dramatically. What’s more, with options you can always adjust your trade and change your strategy to fit the current market trend. What more can you ask for?

Options are like a balanced ecosystem that shield you from the wild up-and-down gyrations of financial markets that are so prevalent right now. If you are interested in more information, visit www.tradegreeks.com and opt in to the TradeGreeks Options Traders Newsletter. Then if you like what you see and want to participate, we invite you to become a member of TradeGreeks.

You are currently reading an article from our article series ‘Covert Life of Investment’.

Call options give the taker the right but not the obligation to buy the shares at a specific price on or before a specific date.

The put options give the taker the right but not the obligation to sell the shares at a specific price on or before a specific date. The taker of a put is only required to deliver the underlying shares if they exercise option.

There are a few advantages in option trading:

Put options allow you to hedge against a possible fall in the price of the shares you hold. You can consider taking it out as insurance against a loss in the share price.

By taking a call option, the purchase price for the shares is locked in. This gives the call option holder until the expiry date to decide whether he or she will or will not buy the shares. This is also applicable to the taker; he or she has to decide whether or not to sell the shares before the deadline.

The ease of trading in and out of an option position makes it possible to trade options with no intention of ever exercising them. If you expect the market to rise, you may want to buy call options, and if you are expecting a fall in the market, you may decide to buy put options. This means that you can sell the option prior to the expiry date to take a profit or limit a loss.

Options also allow you to build a diversified portfolio for a lower initial outlay than purchasing shares directly.

The income generation for options can get you profits over dividends by writing call options against your shares. By writing an option, you receive the option premium up front. While you get to keep the option premium, it is possible that you could be exercised against and have to deliver your shares to the taker at the exercise price. This strategy uses stock bought on margin.

By combining different options, or stocks with options, you can create a wide range of strategies.

You can earn extra income by writing options against shares you already own or are purchasing. This is one of the simplest and most rewarding strategies.

Using options gives you time to decide. Taking a call option can give you time to decide if you want to buy shares. You pay the premium, which is only a fraction of the price of the underlying shares.

The option then locks in a buying price for the shares if you decide to exercise. You then have until the expiry date of the option to decide if you want to buy the shares. This is the same as to the put option.

Keep in mind that, same as any other trades do not trade what you cannot afford to lose.