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

Index Funds vs Mutual Funds vs ETF (WHICH ONE IS THE BEST?!)

Retirement Tips For Baby Boomers

By Dave Swanson

 Before you or anyone chooses take that final step out of the workplace one needs to plan, plan and plan some more. I would start my final planning about 1 year before retirement. I’m going to list a few retirement tips for Baby Boomers, because as we get older we tend to overlook some important financial advantages we may have. Believe me when I say”take advantage of every retirement program that will better your income and life after retirement”.

1.The first thing I would do is to talk with a professional retirement planner. He or she will be able to break down all of you assets and future earnings and plug these numbers in to a program that will tell you who much money you’ll receive for retirement. After looking at your budget the planner can figure out how much money you’ll need for retirement. Put all this together and you will be able to see how many years your retirement money will last. This is only if you have IRAs and 401 Ks. If you are lucky enough to have a union or government pension your monthly stipend should not change, only for COLA.

2.There is another area in your planning that will need a professional to help you out with is, your investment portfolio. When you are retired you’ll want to get the most money each month. So you’ll have to look over your stocks and bonds. Diversify where you can. You never want to have all your eggs in one basket. Also, while you’re still working and you have income property, it would be a good idea to have a look at the property values and what it would take to get a second mortgage on some of the property. This would be another way to increase monthly income. But you must do this before you retire because the banks will want to see that you have sound employment before granting a loan.

3. Another good tip is try to have liquid assets available if you need them, you should have a cash reserve built up, 3 to 6 months worth should do. This fund is a “just in case” fund.

4.Health, sometimes even the smartest people overlook their health. If you need anything done like dental work, new glasses, cosmetic work or any costly medical work, get them done before you retire. Because Med a Care will not cover dental or vision. So get as much done before retirement when you still have good medical coverage.

5.Social Security, if you want your Social Security benefits to start on your 65th birthday you must fill out an application for retirement. You should apply for benefits no more than four months before the date you want your benefits to start. To get the application go on line to the Social Security web site, print out the application and fill it out. Then make an appointment with your local Social Security office. You will need you to bring the following with the filled out application, your Social Security card, your original birth certificate or other proof of birth, a copy of your U.S. military service discharge paper DD 214, and a copy of your W-2 form.

6.Now, for the last tip I have for you. If you’re in good health and don’t want to retire when your 65, then don’t. Keep on working; as a matter of fact you can keep working until your 70. Now if you choose to retire at age 70 you’ll receive $9804.00 more a year than if you retired at age 65. Think of this way, that’s another $817.00 per month that you would have never gotten if you retired at age 65.
In this article I have tried point out a few things that may help when you retire.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/retirement-planning/retirement-tips-for-baby-boomers

Investing Basics: Bonds

The Opportunities In The Student Housing Investment

By D Iqbal

 The European region and exclusively the British region have maintained a position that is much higher than any other countries in world for providing the students with the right kind of student facilities and the finest updated academic environment. This is the reason that more and more students have started taking admission in the universities in the country.

The trend has changed a lot in the past few years when the foreign students have arrived in the country to get the higher education as well. The Student Housing Investment UK has become one of the most reputed and profitable business since the number of students has increased.

The heads at the Knight Frank have suggested that there are considerable opportunities for the ones who are waiting to plunge in this pool of opportunity. The researches have also shown that the students prefer to have better environment for the student accommodation and are willing to pay more in the sector too. The students so forth go for the places that are more comfortable and have better facilities for them even if they are not in the university campus. This calls for a greater chance for the Student Housing Investment UK offers for the students.

The investment returns have also shown positive recommendations for the people who are searching for opportunity of growth in the sector. The sector thus explains a lot of significance for the future yields for the investors. The analysis of September 2013 showed that the returns were around 7.8 percent, which are expected to get better by time. This gives another greater opportunity for the Student Housing Investment UK.

The rental growth that has charged in a great way is expected to go over 3.0 percent that is anticipated to go at least until 2.7 percent. This gives many chances to invest in the part of property that is used by the students. The student accommodation has become a great kind of return in this area. The unavailability of the students has shown a great response in the area as well. The growth in the sector has increased a lot in comparison to the year 2011. The rise in the student market was seen by 13 percent in the recent years that accounts for major investments in the area as well.

The Student Housing Investment UK thus has proven itself a great manifestation as well. The recent growth shows that the yields in the student population will keep on increasing many folds in the sector by a great percentage. The investors have believe in the fact the lack of purposeful buildings for the students and the increased number of students in the hare will also lead to many fantastic opportunities for the students. This is in turn a great revenue and yield building possibility for the investors. This confidence is evidently seen through the construction that is done on the broader level by the biggest construction companies in town and the ones funded by the foreign investors as well.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/investing/the-opportunities-in-the-student-housing-investment

Options Trading: Understanding Option Prices

Options are priced based on three elements of the underlying stock.

1. Time
2. Price
3. Volatility 

Watch this video to fully understand each of these three elements that make up option prices. 

Binary Options - Getting Comfortable With Derivatives

By orcun

 Every day we see and easily understand real-life derivative relationships all around us. Once you get the hang of it you will see that most financial derivatives are not so difficult to grasp. While the mathematics might be daunting at first, merely getting an intuitive feel for the purpose and function of an individual derivative isn’t tough at all.

Let’s talk about the derivative relationship between parents and their children for a bit. We often see a child that looks like a dead ringer for one of its parents. We might be slightly taken aback at the amazing likeness, but this is, nonetheless, a familiar situation for us. Sometimes members of a large family look like differently scaled versions of each other. And we have all see the schoolmaster who projects past experiences for the new arrival: ‘‘Young Smith, I pray you don’t give me as much grief as your brother did!’’ Likewise, we are familiar with the fundamental adage that children are derivatives of their parents: ‘‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’’ Derivatives in financial markets also follow paths and values similar to those taken by their parents.

Financial derivatives such as options, futures, forwards, and swaps inherit their value directly from their parents. In fact, a financial derivative would not have a price at all if the parent ceased to exist (stopped trading). The parents are the three basic financial groups that we are already quite familiar with: stocks, bonds, and commodities.

Every day more and more derivative products are being churned out by inventive marketing departments. These ‘‘innovations,’’ however, are merely variations on the theme of the most important fundamental derivatives: binary options, forwards, and futures. These three derivatives are the three basic building blocks of all complex derivatives, such as swaps.

In a sense we will become financial investigators, delving into the whys and wherefores of the basic three derivatives. As such there is a lot of math involved, but it need not be painful. We will assume the reader has little background in math. We will follow the most intuitive paths possible and avoid as much complexity as we can. Binary options are far more complex in comparison to forwards and futures, both in the math needed to analyze them and in their implications. As such we will spend almost all our time discussing and analyzing options.

Binary options will definitely help you. In order to understand binary options better, read this article once more.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/day-trading/binary-options-getting-comfortable-with-derivatives

How The Stock Exchange Works (For Dummies)

Extremely Safe Investment Decisions

By Dale K Poyser

In order to make your hundreds of millions, you will find two fundamental matters you would need to consider in order to keep a greater portion of money. There's a simple reason veteran baseball players in addition to the sweepstakes champions lose ALL of their financial wealth after a few years. These folks neglect to have an understanding of a pair of simple ideas.

I prefer to tutor all my students that it can be easy to earn cash without any extra money, however many individuals you are aware of (we won't say names) more than likely told you otherwise. I am sure each time you called somebody with questions in regards to investment fundamentals, you were instructed to place cash in the stock exchange, and merely let it rest unless you will be ready to give up work and retire. That advice is the out of date process. and never ever the way I do things. Making an investment is extremely important, moreover making passive residual income is generally a great deal more imperative.

Having said that, some things which are somewhat more critical over passive income have proven to be these safe opportunities.

Investment option #1 - Debts Deletion

Almost what you envisioned ? This is probably among the easiest ways to build some funds on your purse. Tell me why would you be extremely pleased about creating 2% every single year within a Certificate of deposit while you are completing the bare minimum installment payments upon a bank card which often contains a yearly interest up to 19%?

That amount of money a person is forking out (in credit card interest payments) toward lending institutions is much more than your banker is now going to pay you to keep your income secured in a Certificate of deposit for 2-3 years or more.

Try to make cutting out credit balances an increasing priority and most importantly clear out all of those substantial interest rate store cards or perhaps move each of your accounts over to a master card with less costly monthly interest.

With what you should keep from every-month payments relating to a high interest credit card, it is possible to make use of for the purpose of passive income and also reducing your existing living costs.

Financial investment #2 - Try Advancing Your Personal Knowledge

A second vital investment decision which happens to be low risk is generally educating yourself. I'm certain you're conscious the far more trained people obtain the most dollars. Take into account Entrepreneurs, Legal Counsels, Doctors, Jet pilots, for example.

Not all people can be the next Peyton Manning, Joe Montanna, Michael Vick, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, or perhaps Jay-Z. You may need knowledge about "something" in case you actually want to be financially victorious in your life.

Across the country now a days, it is easy to do well devoid of attending a 2yr or simply 4yr university. You can possibly get educated on lots of things merely by figuring them out in your own schedule and time frame, and even benefiting from accreditation.

A few years in the past, I did a fantastic internship while I was a student in college. While there, I first met a university dropout who was doing greater than $150,000 per year as he had trained on his own and also got a certain amount of IT qualifications.

If you consider things with an open mind, you would be surprised at the possibilities.
I am sure you are in all likelihood seeking the top ideas to make residual income, all right, that is within the additional page I penned. This article is dealing with just two erogenous yet , VERY substantial investment decisions. You'll need a great building block on your behalf if you are serious about building wealth from scratch.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/retirement-planning/extremely-safe-investment-decisions

House Prices After Brexit

How To Choose The Best Investment Strategy

By Don Meyer

 The income that we have all been receiving from our savings has been dwindling dramatically over recent years, so if we are to be able to make any sort of return on our money then choosing the best investment strategy is absolutely vital to achieving our financial goals. Inflation is one of the key drivers in needing to plan this strategy, as most savings accounts at the moment are paying interest below the rate of inflation, which leads to the capital effectively decreasing in value.

There are many reasons why you need to be considering your strategy to investing as a whole, because by looking at your investments individually could leave you vulnerable if you are over-committed to one sector or one type of investment. You also need to be certain of how long you are planning to keep your money in the investments, so that you can tailor the risks you take so as to remain able to achieve your goals. There really are very many things to be considered choosing the best investment strategy.

One of the common investment strategies if you are looking to earn a regular income from your investments is to stick mainly to those stocks which have a proven track record of paying out reasonable dividend payments from their profits year after year, and focus on that income, rather than in the temporary fluctuations of the market. If you think that this is the best investment strategy for you, but don’t require the regular income, then many funds will allow you to re-invest any dividends into the same shares to grow your capital invested.

If, however, you are looking to make swifter and more dramatic gains in the value of your investment, then you may need to look at taking more risk. The key with looking for these is that there is greater possibility of actually losing your capital. Investing in the stocks directly can be particularly risky, but there are also funds which you can use to invest and spread the risk for you. The fields most likely to achieve result if you think this is the best investment strategy are the smaller companies and emerging markets.

You can also consider looking at investing in the bond market, with many large companies having issued bonds in the aftermath of the credit crisis, but it is generally considered that most of these bonds are close to the top of their value at the moment, so now may not be the right time for this.
Ultimately, getting the best out of your investments will depend on what you are looking to achieve, and choosing an investment strategy to match.

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/stocks/how-to-choose-the-best-investment-strategy

Your pension fund is worth almost nothing? Find out why. | Dr. Christopher Sier | TEDxOxBridge

Why Buy Gold?

By Jeff Sneeringer

 Why buy gold? Why not marbles, sports cards or antiques? The answer is simple. There is nothing else, with the exception of other precious metals, that has a guaranteed value. With gold you can basically sell it at spot price anywhere in the world. There is no waiting for someone to buy, you can sell it on demand.

Guaranteed Value

If I offered a 1 ounce gold coin to a dealer or investor in Ney York, London or Moscow I would receive the same price from any one of them. They would all pay the current spot value, no questions ask. If I had any other product I'd have to advertise it for sale and wait until someone buys it. And it may never even sell. So thats the common sense reason to invest in gold.

Preserves Wealth

Another good answer to the question why buy gold is that throughout history gold has always held a constant value. This qualifies it as a preserver of wealth. It has never became worthless like paper currencies. In fact, every paper currency in history has eventually collapsed. There is much talk that the U.S. Dollar will soon follow the same tradition. Other countries who invest in the dollar are already running scared. None of them are buying Treasury Bonds like they had in the past. And guess where they are all moving their reserve currencies, into gold!

Independent Asset

One important characteristic about gold is that it's an asset class of its own. It can not be affected by economic conditions of any particular country, which means it can't be inflated or deflated. Paper currencies are the exact opposite. They are constantly being inflated and deflated. Governments can not control gold and that is why we no longer have the gold standard. With paper money the government can crank up the printing presses and completely manipulate the economy. But as we may soon see, they can only do it for so long!

Investment Hedge

The reason investors include gold in their portfolio is for a safety net. It's a great hedge to help protect against the decline of their other investments. One thing about gold is when the stock market declines, gold shines. That inverse affect on the price of gold gives it the credibility to be the one investment to rely on when others lose value.

It's Rare

Probably the biggest reason gold remains so consistent in value is because it can not be produced. Even other commodities such as wheat or sugar can be created. Paper currencies can be printed. But there is no way to create gold out of thin air. And there is only so much gold that has every been mined, 165,000 metric tonnes to be exact. In its pure state it could all fit in a cube the size of a football field. This makes it the rarest of all commodities.

So, you no longer have to wonder, why buy gold. And when you invest a pile of your, "soon to be", worthless dollars into the shinny metal, you can be confident you haven't lost your marbles!

Article Source: http://www.streetarticles.com/futures-and-commodities/why-buy-gold

How Much Income Do You Need In Retirement?