Using Leverage to Your Best Advantage in the Stock Market

By Matt Fox

Leverage is the ability to use a little bit of money to potentially make a large amount of money. For the past six years leverage has been used in the real estate market as lenders introduced new lending products such as zero down loans and Adjustable Rate Mortgages(ARMs) as well as through the use of option contracts. Leverage is also used to great effect in the stock market options market for about 25 years and in the commodities market for hundreds of years. In fact, leverage is what makes these markets liquid. That is to say these markets would be much less efficient without the use of leverage to bring hedgers, speculators, and manufacturers together and allow them to trade quickly.

Options are only contracts that people form to use leverage in a very simple form. Options are used in real estate and the stock market primarily, but may be used for any commodity or futures contract. An option is a simple contract that must be purchased from the option writer, or the person who owns the underlying asset for a price called a premium. This allows the options buyer to purchase the asset at a predetermined price no matter what the value of the asset may be when the contract/option is actually exercised, if it is exercised at all. This premium may only be 3% to 20% of the total value of the asset. This is leverage. Controlling a large valuable asset for a small price, even if for only a limited time period.

Leverage also allows the stock option holder to buy the stock for the predetermined price once the strike price is reached. If this happens the option holder may exercise the contract to purchase the stock at the predetermined price, no matter what the market price actually is at the time. Leverage exists because the price of the premium is usually between 3% to 10% of the total value of the shares that are being controlled. Stock options are standardized to control 100 shares of stock for the time period agreed upon. So if a stock that is trading at $100 can be controlled for 5% of the total value to the shares there is a huge amount of leverage for the option holder. $100 X 100 shares = $10,000 of total value of the shares. Five percent of $10,000 = $500. So for a mere $500 an options holder can control $10,000 worth of shares for a limited time.

This is leverage that any legal adult can use in either real estate, commodities contracts or in the options market to use resources (the asset) owned by someone else, for a limited time, for a very small price based on the total value of the asset. By using leverage properly any investor has the opportunity to build a large amount of wealth for a very low cost. Because options in real estate, commodities contracts and the stock market are considered very risky to the risk adverse, everyone must determine for themselves just how much risk they are willing to assume before using leverage as a tool for wealth building through investments.

Matt Fox is a successful investor in the stock market, real estate market and in private deals with individuals and businesses. To read more investment tips, stock market analysis, investment advice and business advice read his blog at http://www.bizmaker.blogspot.com

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Buying Fractional Stock Shares

By Amit Malhotra

If you are thinking that you need a large amount to make stock market trading, you need to consider your options little further. In this age of online stock trading, there are so many other options available and fractional stock is one such option that lets you make profitable stock market investment with minimum resources.

By buying fractional stock you are actually, making partial investment for high priced stocks that otherwise would have cost you exuberantly. Even if you are making huge investments, at times you can be in position when you have little resources to invest in a market. This is a situation when the fractional share can be a great way to make little but profitable investment. A great thing about the fractional stock is that you can invest as any amount to buy the stocks.

Buying stock in parts is a good idea and great way to make profit from the small investments. As you need to make little investment, you can even buy stocks that are otherwise vulnerable in nature and showing unpredictability. So, when you are not quite sure about a stock but the stock is potentially strong you can buy fractional share and try your luck.

Another interesting fact about the fractional [http://www.sogoinvest.com]stock is that with little amount of money, you can hold share of as many companies as you want. This is an effective way of trading, especially in an overall volatile market as you can always make up the losses if you have more options for managing the loss.

To do these quick and short-term smart investments, you have top depend on your stock broker a great deal. They need to provide you with the right research and news that hugely influence the price of the stocks. It is their timely information that can give you huge returns as you do profitable investments in the fractional stocks. There are so many options when you choose your broker for the trading in fractional stocks you need to make the choice depending on the factors that are important for your profit. You must try to find out option for the discount brokerage to make the maximum profit from your trading. You can also choose from so many stock trading companies who are offering online stock trading facilities.

As far as fractional share trading concerned, SogoInvest is offering some great solutions. With SogoInvest, you can buy any amount of fractional share. While other brokers insist on buying at least 100 shares per transaction, at this brokerage firm you can buy shares of any amount even if you are availing of the dollar cost averaging. You can deal in shares using either your joint or individual account. You can set a dollar investment schedule for any day of the week or choose a daily or monthly investment option in any stock, group of stocks or ETF’s and the automated investment feature which will make the investment on the stipulated time. Along with the automated investment options, the automatic funding offers the new and seasoned investor the streamlined trading functionality.

SogoInvest offers host of other services including powerful online trading tools including real-time portfolio information, stock quotes and charts, free research and news, stocks & ETF screeners and investor education that help you in your online investments. So get equipped and start your online trading venture as soon as possible.

  Open an account with sogoinvest

If you are new to sogoinvest: Online stock trading investment

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?Buying-Fractional-Stock-Shares&id=741670

Considering Trading Stock Options?

By Daniel Beatty

An option can be simply defined as a contract between a seller and the buyer that allows the right to purchase or sell shares of stock with a specified timeframe.  A solid education of the stock market is crucial for success in the options trading arena.  After that, the main focus of your options trading education should be learning as much as possible about the main building blocks of options trading – puts and calls. Also, if you are considering stock option trading, then you must be certain that you implement the most effective strategies.

You might begin by subscribing to a good stock option newsletter that includes the latest tips and strategies for investors who engage in options trading.  Such a newsletter will be vital for an investor when deciding the fate of his or her options.

You will find that many brokerage firms offer helpful publications and tips by email to help novice option traders sound advice and strategies.  After all, brokerage firms profit when you are successful.  There is also a wealth of information regarding options trading readily available in books at your public library and local bookstore.  The most successful investors spend endless hours soaking up knowledge on topics regarding stocks and option trading.

In addition to the numerous books available at your local library and bookstore, many websites offer ebooks, newsletters, and publications dedicated to the subject of options trading - the Chicago Board of Options Exchange (www.cboe.com) is a great resource.  You may also consider joining an investment club for even more guidance and help.  These clubs typically provide members with stock option trading newsletters as well as options trading tips.  You may also want to consider networking by joining an affiliation.  It is important to arm yourself with as much information as possible if you are considering options trading as an investment strategy.

Options trading should never be viewed as a get rich quick scheme.  As with anything else, it requires experience and knowledge to be successful.  Therefore, it is advisable to gain as much knowledge as possible before even considering this avenue.  Take advantage of electronic updates and newsletters for research and choosing the best options.  However, you should keep a balanced perspective when utilizing this advice.  Keeping all of these things in mind will definitely increase your chance at profitability with options trading.

Also, it is advisable to keep in mind that you should only invest your expendable finances since there are always risks associated with investing of any kind.  You would not want to risk your retirement fund for investing.  Be knowledgeable and sensible about your options trading strategies and you will increase your potential profits.

Did you understand this article? Are you lost but would like to try and understand? Daniel Beatty understands and has created a website to help you understand. If you would like to learn more about Option Trading Strategies please visit -   Conservative Options or just type in http://www.conservative-options.com

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Think Stock Options Are Riskier Than Stocks? Don’t Be Fooled

By Tom Jiang

People who are unfamiliar with stock options often think they are risky, complex instruments unsuitable for most investors. This is only partially true, as options are no more risky or complex than stocks.

Options are risky. As an investment that depends on an uncertain outcome in the future, options are inherently risky. That said, it is unlikely that anyone will give you back more in the future if there was no risk to you (even a passbook account is risky, except that the government guarantees your principal via FDIC). No one would disagree that the stock market is risky, yet many people who do not trade options will happily trade stocks.

Why is this? For one thing, options have an expiration date, while holding stocks do not (this is not strictly true either - bankruptcy can be seen as an expiration on the company’s equity). However, this added expiration risk can be mitigated by buying LEAPs (long term equity anticipation securities). This strategy is no more risky than buying the stock outright; in fact it is generally less risky, because the cost of 100 shares of the underlying stock is higher than buying a single contract on the stock (often considerably higher).

Another reason is that the change in options prices is very large compared to the movement in the underlying asset (e.g., a 1% drop in the stock price could cause a 5% drop in the option price). On the surface, this makes options look much more dangerous. However, considering the amount of money being put up, the large price swings are relatively benign. For example, if a contract for 100 shares costs $600, and the stock costs $9,500 for the same 100 shares, the stock only needs to drop 6.3% for the stockholder to lose $600. Conversely, a 6.3% drop in the stock will not cause the option’s price to fall 100%. On the contrary, the option could even rise in price.

Options are complex. Options are no more complex than stocks. To use options in your portfolio, you need only learn a few concepts (e.g., call vs. put option, strike price, expiration, etc.). The basics of options trading can be mastered fairly quickly (often it’s the market mechanics that are the most troublesome). Advanced analysis and uses of options can get very complicated, but then so can stocks (anyone who has ever tried to decipher a company’s financial statements can attest to this).

As a derivative financial instrument, options are often meant to be used in conjunction with the underlying asset to manage risk. If this is true, then the assumption is that one would need to study the underlying asset first. In other words, if you’ve already done your homework on the stock, selecting an option is trivial: choose a type (basic, spread, etc.), a price, and a time to expiration. The result will be one option (or more if doing a strategy) that requires significantly less capital expenditure than outright ownership.

The next time someone tells you that options are more risky than stocks, you can tell them that is not entirely accurate.

Visit  boxcharts.com to learn more about how to use options to protect yourself and earn higher returns.

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Learn Forex With Forex Training Videos

By Tobias Rieper

I came across a brand new forex video course, this one is not like many others since it includes videos, in addition to ebooks. Actually this course includes video tutorials, ebooks, softwares, mentoring from a professional trader, free signals and more. Doesn’t that sound good ? I am going to tell you what you will get when you purchase the package.

You will get access to a members area to download the full package. Concerning the forex video courses, there are 28 online videos. You can see a sample on the website. It shows a trade strategy that brings 973 pips in about a week. Of course you don’t make this kind of profit every week but this is easy to see how powerful is the strategy.

There are 5 full proven and profitable strategies in this package. Not just one.

You don’t only get the video courses. There are much more informations about the strategies and the forex market in downloadable ebooks. You will find tools to help you analyze the market. You will learn the basics, the fundamental analysis, the technical analysis, the trading psychology and the most advanced strategies to pull in big profits in your account.

I have always been convinced that there are traders that know more than others. Of course their day job is forex trading, they do it all day. But there are also people that simply know good systems and make profit every day just following a plan. Their strategies are kept for themselves, the author decided to reveal some of them. And he does it well, and more than revealing his techniques, he and his professional team will mentor you, for free.

Having a mentor for free is the real deal of this package. Imagine all your questions being answered, you will never get stuck and always have a follow up after your purchase.

The creator also offers an additional members with more content. When you will have. New informations, new charts, new strategies, new tools. The package is regularly updated and updates are free ! You are even added to a VIP list and be able to see live examples of trades.

But my favorite bonus is a "one free month of Forex signals". If you already know how to execute a trade this is simply amazing. You know, signals tell you exact entry and exit point of a trade, for a specific pair. You know what pair to trade, when to enter a trade and where you take your profit. Just follow the signals.

This course is really new and I feel not so many people know about it. Anyway this is a perfect package for beginners there is so much information that you can’t really go wrong. Plus, the free mentoring, and the free month of forex signals are worth enough the price ($97). Learn Forex at ForexBo.com and find more about the Forex training videos.

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Stock Options Trading - How to Profit From Falling Stock Prices

By Jules Dawson

When it comes to making money on the Stock Market you will find everyone has their own view on the best strategy to use.

One of the most common strategies to make money in the short term is to buy shares and sell them at a profit once the share price has risen.

This is called Stock Trading, and can be a very effective way to profit from shares.

However just lately we have been looking at a downward and quite volatile move in our markets.

Right now many traders are sitting back ‘waiting for the market to get back to normal’ before they begin to profit again, but who knows how long bear markets last?

And what are these traders going to do for CASH in the meantime?

I believe in trading a strategy that suits the direction of the market, not waiting for the market to eventually comply with the criteria of just one particular strategy.

While everyone else has been running the other way in the present market conditions, there are quite a few traders who have been making consistent profits.

How are they making money on falling stock prices?

Well there are several ways to achieve this, some more complicated and costly than others. The most affordable, easy to understand and easy to implement trading vehicle I have found that will help you make money on a falling stock is Put Options.

Put Options began many years ago as a hedging instrument. That is they were designed as an insurance instrument for shares.

Basically a Put Option is a contact that relates to a particular stock and gives you the right to sell that stock at a fixed price within a certain period of time. For this right we pay a premium.

So an example of hedging would be if you owned some shares that you paid $ 20 for and bought a put option for insurance. This would give you the right to sell your shares at any time (during the life of the option) for $ 20, even if the share price fell to just a few dollars.

So how do we Make Money as Income using Put Options?

The most common way is to trade the actual Put Option and NEVER buy or sell the stock. This is called Options Trading.

As the share price drops in value, the value of the Put Option actually INCREASES. So when Options Trading we want to buy puts on falling shares and sell them to another trader at a PROFIT.

Let’s imagine that ABC shares are trading at $ 40 and our analysis tells us that the price may fall even lower.

We could buy an ABC $ 40 Put Option and for this we might pay $ 2.

We now have the right to sell those shares at any time before expiry of the option for $ 40. But we don’t own the shares, nor are we interested in owning the shares.

Soon after we buy the option, the share price falls to $ 30. So if we wanted to, we could buy the shares now at the market price of $ 30 and sell them with our put option for $ 40 resulting in a $ 10 profit.

That sounds appealing?

To do this however, we would have to come up with the $ 30 each share to be able to buy them before we could get that $ 10 profit in our hot little hands. What if we don’t have that kind of money to spare?

Here’s the power!

Because the share price has fallen, our Put Option could now be worth $ 12. And because we only paid $ 2 for it initially, we are now looking at a $ 10 profit.

We would then sell the put option on the market for $ 12 and realize our $ 10 profit, and all we had to come up with to do this was the initial $ 2 we paid for the option contract.

This is called leverage and it is a very powerful way to make money from a smaller amount of money.

And the maximum amount we stand to lose if we get it wrong? Just the $ 2 we paid for our option in the first place. Options Trading Strategies

Article Source:  http://EzineArticles.com/?Stock-Options-Trading—How-to-Profit-From-Falling-Stock-Prices&id=1220017

Understanding Stock Options Abbreviations, Part 2

By Mark Crisp

First is the symbol for the stock (in this case, three letters). This is followed by a period and then a two-letter code indicating month and striking price. Distinction between call and put is part of the month code. A Wal-Mart September call with a striking price of 60 is designated as WMTIL A put for the same striking price and month is designated as: WMT.UL.

For LEAPS the abbreviations are more difficult. Just as computer programmers in the 1950s and 1960s did not anticipate the problems of the millennium when they assigned only two digits for years, the designers of option trading symbols did not foresee the problems of multiyear LEAPS options. While the abbreviations for traditional listed options are straightforward, abbreviations for LEAPS options would need to take into consideration both the multiple-year problem and the possibility of multiple-level outstanding options.

The exchanges have run out of symbols. With nearly 500 stocks trading LEAPS, the problem is made worse by the fact that some listings exceed the 100-point spread and may have existing LEAPS outstanding for 105 and 205 striking prices, for example. Under today’s system, there is no easy way to define the rule for symbols, because it continues to evolve.

Fortunately, you do not need the symbol in order to find a LEAPS listing. You can simply go to one of many web sites offering free listings and look up the contract. The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) offers one of the best services of this type. As options trading becomes increasingly efficient online, it is also likely that the use of abbreviated options symbols for terms will become obsolete. The need for such abbreviations came from the days when most trades took place by phone. So a trader did not need to tell the broker to buy a "Wal-Mart September 60 call." He could simply instruct the broker to buy a WMTIL. If trading takes place online, the whole process will be more automatic than in the past, and the use of symbols—especially given the complexity of LEAPS trading—may fade.

Get your  target=_Powerful Momentum Stock Trading System and sign up for my free weekly online trading system newsletter here at:  target=_new http://www.stressfreetrading.com

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How to Use Options Trading Rolling Strategy

By Wincent Loh

An options trading rolling strategy is a strategy where you move your strike point to a new strike point during the month.  Rolling basically means moving.  In the world of options trading, this movement happens when you move positions from one strike point to another.  That can either happen when you move points vertically (within the same month) or horizontally (to another month) or both.

You see, in order to maximize returns, investors should use the covered call strategy every month for a long time.  That requires that the investor move, or roll, the strike position when the option expires.  That is where the term "rolling" comes from.

Part of options trading rolling strategy also involves knowing when to avoid rolling, though.  Occasionally an investor may decide not to roll the strike position.  The purpose of that is to allow the capital to appreciate more.  That is a rare scenario, however, because, if the call option is exercised when share becomes in the money, it could be called away.

As an option’s expiration approaches, there can be either one of two outcomes.  Either the short option could be out-of-the-money or in-the-money.  If the option is out-of the-money, it is worthless.  The investor simply sells the next month’s call, after letting the option expire.  If, on the other hand, the option ends up in-the-money, in order to keep the stock all the investor needs to do is sell the next month’s call after buying the short option back.  Even though that sort of trade consists of two trades, buying and selling, it is considered one trade.  It is also known as a spread.  If you want to roll out your covered call or buy-write, you need to utilize such a spread.  That way, you can buy back the short option and keep your stock.

Your second month option would be sold short.  Thus, your covered call strategy would be re-initiated.  The remaining positions are the short calls and long stock.  You have to buy back the option that you are short at the beginning of the month.  You would not have a choice for your front month option.  However, you would have the choice to sell near term or with a farther expiration date for the next month option.

As you can see, rolling can be a bit complicated.  However, you may find it well worth it, in the long run.  The trick is to be careful to make the most informed decisions possible.  Remember to never risk more than you can afford to lose either. After all, it is not an exact science.

So, now that you understand the options trading rolling strategy better, you may want to consider it.  There is something to be said for using options trading rolling strategy to improve your earning potential, after all.

Find out more about the advanced options trading rolling strategies at Options University Resources Blog

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Use-Options-Trading-Rolling-Strategy&id=1095300

Stock Options - How Do Call Options Work?

By Jules Dawson

When you purchase a CALL OPTION, you have…

THE RIGHT, BUT NOT THE OBLIGATION, TO BUY A FIXED NUMBER OF SHARES AT A FIXED PRICE ON OR BEFORE A FIXED DATE.

Stock Option Glossary:

STRIKE PRICE This is the fixed, pre determined price at which you can buy the shares. This cannot be changed throughout the life of the option.

EXPIRY This is the date at which the option contract expires. This cannot be changed throughout the life of the option, and there after the contract is worthless.

EXERCISE The process of fulfilling the put option contract and buying the shares. This can be done any time up to and including the option expiry date.

PREMIUM The amount you pay for the option contract. Each stock has set strike prices for trading. Depending on where the strike price is in relation to the current share price, influences the amount you pay.

In the U.S one option contract relates to 100 shares and on the Australian stock market it would relate to 1,000 shares. Options give you control over these shares at a fraction of the cost of buying the stock itself.

For example, XYZ stock might cost you $ 15.00 to buy, whereas $ 1.50 might buy you an XYZ call option that would give you control over that stock.

SO HOW DO YOU PROFIT FROM CALL OPTIONS?

You would buy Call Options if you had a bullish view on a particular stock, as they give you the right to buy shares.

The value of a call option increases as the share price rises. You stand to profit if the share price goes up.

Call Options can be used many ways…

As an Incentive:

Many business owners commonly give their employees call options over the company they work for as part of their employment agreement or as an incentive. The idea being that as the stock price increases, so does the value of the call option, allowing the employee to on-sell the option at a profit, or exercise their right to purchase the stock at the lesser strike price resulting in a profit. However if the stock price has not increased then the option will expire worthless.

As Income:

Stock Options allow you to make money in the stock market, whether it’s up or down. There are countless different options trading strategies all with their own degree of risk, that may help earn you an income.

A common, but powerful income strategy is to trade Call Options for profit in a rising market. This is the process of buying and selling call options (before they expire) at a profit. More Information

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