Your excitement is understood. And guess what? It's actually possible because it has been done.
We are assuming that you've obtained a really good stock option trading system, a method that uses excellent high probability entries, well placed stop losses and a trailing stop method of maximizing profits Now it is time to talk about the 'good stuff', the secrets of money management in options trading, where the real profits are created.
Options trading money management is the heart and soul of making your account grow while preventing unwelcome disasters. Trade with intelligent money management and increase your confidence.
Okay, so let's say your stock options trading system is actually making you profits. You feel that the system can be trusted and now you are anxious to 'up the ante' and start making bigger returns. So what do you do next?
Well first of all, keep trading but just keep your position sizes small, for now. It's now time to do a little tweaking with your money management of your position sizes. Doing this right could possibly make you hundreds of thousands up through millions of dollars, literally. Doing options trading money management wrong can cause you a lot of misery, pain, and suffering and wipe out your account quickly!
In essence, you want to keep your position sizes (the total amount you have invested into an options trade position) even sized and never more than 10% of your options trading portfolio (on a small account and down to 1% to 2% options position sizes on very large accounts). With options, even if you kept your 'bet' size the same, say 20 contracts for each and every trade, you could make a great living off just one stock even if you never increase your position size. But if you wanted to taste a little of that compounded, 'parabolic' growth increase your options position size by 20% to 30% max every time you double your account (never increase it to 100%!).
In case you're reading this and do not have a profitable Stock Option Trading System or stock there are excellent systems available through doing a little reasearch. You can try and figure a system out on your own or you can short cut success by obtaining some one else's system or service and emulate what they are doing.
Here are some basic trading system approaches that can net out consistent profits: Trade trends. Trade pivot points. Trade swings in the direction of the trend. And that pretty much covers it for successful moneymaking, directional options trading that's worth your time.
If your profits are bigger than your losses then you have a winning trading system. You don't necessarily have to win more than you lose. Yes you can actually make money by losing more than you win if your winners are big enough and your losers are small enough.
The issue when trading options is that when you lose you can easily take a 25 to 50% 'haircut' or more of your position just by simply stopping out through stock price action. This also goes to show that you will want a system that doesn't lose too often when trading options - remember that. Plus you'll want your winners to be able to be really big so trend and pivot point systems can perform the best.
This brings up the issue of making a fortune in options trading without losing your shirt.
There is nothing worse than making a fortune in options trading then quickly giving that fortune back. If you've ever done that you can understand why people jumped off bridges and have tall buildings in 1929 during the great stock market crash. It's a most miserable feeling because you get so high and excited, and happy from your gains and then if you lose that if worse than never having had obtained it in the first place. So promise yourself now that you'll never put your self in that position and that you'll aggressively guard your profits at all times.
So that said let's figure out how to grow a trading account rapidly without losing it.
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.
First, you must understand the degree which time affects the premium of the option you are considering trading. There are two parts you must consider when factoring time into the stock option trading decisions. The first thing that you must take into account is the intrinsic time left on an option. Since options have a limited time period of anywhere from 30 days to several year depending on the particular option that you bought 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.
Finally, the fifth and final key to successfully trading stock options is yourself, particularly your trading psychology. Human beings and there mental makeups are extremely complex so it is extremely important that stock option traders not only have a sound stock option trading methodology but the discipline to follow there trading methods. You can give two people the same exact winning trading system but it is very common for them to have different results. Invariably, 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 the trading result will emerge the greatest winner in the end.
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.
Both Chris Viscaya & Billy Williams.. are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Chris Viscaya has sinced written about articles on various topics from Investing and Trading, Finances and The Internet. Chris Viscaya is a head trader at OPIVO Trading specializes in trading a unique pivot point. Chris Viscaya's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.
Billy Williams.. has sinced written about articles on various topics from . Would like to earn greater returns in today's markets? Sign up for a free newsletter and ebook at and read more articles like this one at. Billy Williams..'s top article . to your Favourites.