FIVE KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL STOCK OPTION

By: Billy Williams

Stock option trading presents the opportunity to potentially make a fortune trading options than almost any other form of online trading in today's market. The level of reduced risk combined with above average leverage allows a skilled option trader the chance to make sizable gains but an aspiring option trader must have a solid understanding about what creates a reliable option trading method to insure long term success at option trading. There are five fundamental steps that any option trader must implement when creating a superior stock option system.

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.

This brings us to the second part of the option selection process of trading options successfully is factoring time into your trading system. Trading a particular stock option and knowing the key factors of your option trading system or setup by knowing the average time period of a trade once it has been signaled and entered. For example, if your average holding time for an option trade is five days then you don't want to buy an option with four 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 than 30 days till expiration as time decay would eat away the value of option so rapidly that even if the stock option's underlying stock moved favorably in your direction the time decay would be so great you would be too late to capture 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 fourth key in successful stock option trading is having a trading method that takes factor these key steps into 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. Understanding all steps of various trade setups is meaningless if you don't have a trading system that guides you through each step of the trade management process. A solid trading stock option system guides you by the hand and details each step while guiding you towards being a consistent winning trader in the markets and being profitable in the end.

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.

These five key secrets are a foundation to help you help you avoid the mistakes of many other individuals who come into stock option trading seeking fortune but only end up with busted trading accounts that end up being zeroes out in the end. 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 an understanding of five key secrets that help you build a successful trading approach to trading stock options in today's markets.

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