3 Key Strategies To Use When Trading Stock Options

By Dale K Poyser

 One of the most critical, and I mean critical things to be aware of when trading options is choosing the right underlying stock for that particular option strategy. In a previous article I covered selling naked puts and covered calls. Now I'm going to talk about three strategies to use to help choose the right underlying stock.

Selling puts and calls is a waiting game. This strategy works best with stocks that do not move a lot. In other words, stocks that are somewhat non-volatile.

1 Stock must have an Options Chain

 There must be options available for that stock. Not all stocks have options, so options strategies cannot be applied to all stocks. The first step in selecting an underlying stock is to choose a stock that has an options chain. This can be verified easily enough by looking at the quote detail on any stock and selecting "chain" or "options chain." By selecting this for a particular stock, you can see a list of put options and call options by month and in some cases years (LEAPs) for expiration dates. You will also be able to view the different strike prices available for a particular stock. You can get this information on any stock site such as MSN, NASDAQ or similar sites. Once you have a list of stocks with options move on to the next step.

2 Technical Analysis

Most stock prices follow a certain pattern over time. People that are proficient in technical analysis can study these chart patterns and try to predict or anticipate the price movement of a stock. Past performance does not guarantee future success and stop losses are in place to address this. That being said, this tool is extremely powerful in predicting the future price patterns of a stock when applied properly and with discipline. Use technical analysis to identify stocks that are moving in tight ranges (not choppy) and ideally flat or slightly trending upward. Looking for rising trendlines and channels will be particularly useful. This should significantly narrow down your list from step 1. Lastly, apply technical analysis to the major indices such as the DOW Jones, NASDAQ, and S&P. Stocks tend to follow the direction of the market. Your chances of success will be much higher if you apply your strategy in line with the market direction. Technical analysis alone will greatly increase your chances of picking the right underlying stock for your options strategy.

3. Fundamental analysis.

This type of analysis involves looking at the financials of a particular stock. This involves things such as sales, income, debt to earnings, price to earnings, market cap, etc. Once you have narrowed down your list from methods one and two, further narrow down your list by choosing stocks with a strong balance sheet. Look for strong earnings, low debt, low price to earnings (P/E) and positive news about the company such as new products, etc. There is not much more to say on this strategy other than that you need to choose the right healthy underlying stocks for your options strategy.
In summary, options trading involves choosing the right underlying stock. This process can be made simple by first finding stocks that have an options chain, then applying technical analysis to find the right price pattern. Lastly, use fundamental analysis to narrow down this list to your master stocklist. Look for proper entry points and choose your option strike price based on these points.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/retirement-planning/3-key-strategies-to-use-when-trading-stock-options

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2 Quick And Easy Options Trading Strategies For Beginners

By Dale K Poyser

 Ever wanted to get into options investing but did not know how? Well, I’m going to give you a quick overview of options and then two options investing strategies that are quick and easy to implement.

Overview on options

The first thing to understand is that Options trading can be very speculative or very conservative, how much is entirely up to you. In other words, you can do everything from protecting a position from a decline to outright speculating on the movement of a stock, commodity, or index, this is the conservative approach. The high risk associated with options applies to the speculative approach. You can buy and sell options like you buy and sell stocks. Statistics show that 80% of Options “sellers” make money and 80% of options “buyers” lose money. So, which side do you think you should be on? That’s right, the sellers!

An option is a binding contract (between a buyer and a seller) that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a fixed amount of shares of an underlying asset at a specific price on or before the expiration date. For stock options the expiration date is usually the third Friday of every month, although there are some stocks that have options that expire weekly, Microsoft and Google are examples of stocks with weekly expiring options.

A call option gives the holder the "option" to buy the underlying stock at a specific price (strike price) before expiration. Calls are like being in a long position on a stock. Call buyers profit if the stock will increase significantly above the strike price before the option expiration date, otherwise the option expires worthless.

A put option gives the holder the "option" to sell the underlying stock at a specific price (strike price) before expiration. Puts are like being in a short position on a stock. Put buyers profit if the price of the stock falls significantly below the strike price before the option expires, otherwise the option expires worthless.

2 Quick and Easy Options Trading Strategies you can Implement today!!

The two options strategies I recommend for beginners are

1. Selling naked puts on stocks you would not mind owning, or
2. Selling covered calls on stocks you already own.

By selling naked puts you are basically being paid a premium upfront to buy a stock at a price YOU determine. If at expiration the stock never hits the price (strike price) of the option, you keep the premium free of any further obligation. At this point you are free to sell the put option for the next month out. You can do this strategy over and over again until you are forced to take ownership of the stock. At which point (you now own the stock) you can sell covered calls until someone buys the stock from you.

These easy options investing strategies are a great and very simple residual strategy that can easily make you 10% or more on your money every month. A key to these strategies are choosing the right underlying stocks and strike price of the options. This works best with non-volatile stocks.


Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/retirement-planning/2-quick-and-easy-options-trading-strategies-for-beginners

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How Much Do I Need To Save For Retirement

By C. Hughes

 I know that I have been wondering how much do I need to save for retirement. So I started looking around to see how bad my retirement situation really is. I won’t go into my details but the bottom line is that I’m way behind in my planning for retirement. I need a serious infusion of funding to make it through my “Golden Years”.

There are many places to identify how much you need to comfortably retire. What I was able to find indicates that I should have 1.2 million dollars saved in my retirement account to have a comfortable retirement and to live off the annuity from this.

One of the ways to capitalize on your funds if you haven’t saved enough is to postpone your retirement. Waiting just 5 years will make a big difference in the amount that is in your retirement account. Assuming that your account has $50,000 when you reach age 65, waiting until you reach age 70 before you retire and taking the last 5 years to maximize your 401K fund and assuming an 8% return on your investments, you will retire with $772,000 and be able to withdraw an annual salary of $72,000/year for the next 20 years.

While these calculations are fine and dandy if you have a nice nest egg, many of us were hurt by the financial meltdown over the last few years. It makes sense to keep working on your retirement funds but putting all of your eggs into that basket may not be the smartest way to fund your retirement.
I’ve found that an additional income stream that can allow you to save more toward your retirement and even fund it if you work at it. The nice thing about this self-employment opportunity is that it generates residual income once you have a few sites built and ranking, this can run unattended once you have set it up.

I’m referring to affiliate marketing on the internet. This is a business model that is very cheap to start. If you aren’t technologically saavy? There is a community of folks at Wealthy Affiliate that are more than willing to help you get started and learn everything you need to know in a safe environment. Will you need to dip into your retirement fund to learn? Fortunately there is no charge to get started and see what this training facility is all about. For the first 7 days, you will even get Premium level support features with the free membership.

After your first week, some of the high level features are suspended but all of the training for the Starter membership is still available. When you have exhausted the Starter Membership and covered all of the tutorials and certification courses, I suspect you too will have the bug and want to upgrade to the Premium level. If you choose not to upgrade to the very affordable paid membership, there will never be pressure for you to upgrade. I think you will see the value in it though.

If your retirement is looking bleak, and your funds are lacking, I highly recommend that you take a look at your earning power and find out if affiliate marketing is a way that you might close the gap. I know that I have chosen this method and am finding it to be a very helpful addition to my portfolio.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/retirement-planning/how-much-do-i-need-to-save-for-retirement