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SUCCESSFUL STOCK OPTION TRADING WITH FIVE KEY SECRETS

By: Billy Williams

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.



To start, the first secret is that you must factor the affects of time into the value of the option you are choosing to trade. The two essential parts you must factor when considering time into the stock option trading process. The first essential part to be considered is the time remaining on an option till it expires. Stock options have a set time period of anywhere from 30 days up to three years in some cases till they expire worthless so you must then select the proper stock option with enough time on it in order to profit. 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 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.



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.

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