FIVE FUNDAMENTAL STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL STOCK OPTION TRADING
by Billy Williams
Stock option trading has presented the public the opportunity greater cash windfalls by trading options than almost any other form of trading or investing in the market in historyt. The low level of controlled risk together with far superior leverage presents the possibility an option trader the opportunity to make a fortune trading stock options however aspiring option trader requires a level of comprehension about what really forms a reliable option trading approach to insure success with trading stock options. There are five key secrets that any option trader must use when approaching trading stock options in order to be successful.
To begin with you must realize the affects of time on the premium of the option you are choosing to trade. There are two parts you must factor when considering time into the stock option trading process. The first part that has to be considered is the time left on an option till expiration. Since stock options have a defined time period of anywhere from 30 days up to three years in some cases then you must be sure to select the proper stock option with enough time on it in order to profit. You must be sure that you purchase the correct option containing enough time on it to insure that time decay doesn't erode your investment away before your position has enough time to be profitable.
The second skill of trading options profitably is factoring time into your trading system in relation to trading a particular stock option and knowing the statistics of your option trading methodology or option trading setup by knowing the average holding period of a trade signal. If your average holding time for an option trade is seven days then you don't want to buy an option with three months of time premium left on it because you would be paying more for the extra time with the option's purchase price. Nor would you buy an option with less that 30 days till expiration as time decay would erode the value of option so quickly that even if the option's underlying stock movement moved favorably to you the time decay would prevent you from realizing a gain in the option itself.
The third thing to profitable stock option trading is understanding the relation of volatility between the market, the underlying stock that underlies the stock option, and the effect is has on the value of the option itself. When the general stock market as an index goes thru periods of volatility or low trading ranges the stocks that make up the market tend to follow overall trend and also begin to experience periods of low overall volatility which in turn can cause derivative like stock options to become cheap or low premiums. But if the market's volatility rises it is likely that individual stocks will follow the trend causing stock option premiums to increase in value given that the market moves in the trader's favor.
The next key in how to trade stock options successfully is having a stock option trading method that takes these key factors into consideration while giving clear entry signals, clear exit signals, a defined system of trade management, and a profit factor greater than your average loss over a series of trades. Knowing the ins and outs of various trade setups is useless if you don't have a trading methodology that guides you in every step of the trade process. A solid trading method holds you by the hand and defines each step while leading you to being a consistent winner in the markets and a profitable trader when all is said and done.
The final key to trading stock options successfully is your trading discipline. An individual trader's discipline are vital to trading stock options successfully. It is critical that a trader approach stock option trading while factoring in their own level of trading discipline into their overall approach to trading the markets. You can give two traders the same exact profitable trading system but it's very likely that they will experience very different results. The reason for this is usually is because the one that has the ability to remain as detached from his losing trades as well as his winning trades while maintaining the discipline to follow the system's rules no matter what occurs on any one individual trade will emerge the net winner. A trader's discipline is so essential that even if a trader has the greatest stock option trading system ever devised but has no discipline he will likely turn into a losing trader so keep this in mind when devising your approach to trading stock options.
Using these five steps as a foundation to create your own stock option trading system can help you avoid the mistakes of many other stock and option traders. By understanding time decay, factoring an option's time into your trading method, how volatility impacts a stock option's intrinsic value, what details a winning stock option trading system, and your own trading psychology you now have a the key steps to build your trading career on.
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