As an investment professional who has extensive experience dealing with stock options, I am often approached by friends and family members who want to learn more about options trading. After all, the prospect of making quick money is alluring. Although many of my colleagues are institutional traders who have made an obscene amount of money for their trading desks either selling or buying options, I kept on refusing to teach my enthusiastic cousin in college the fundamentals of options trading.
Why? Because options trading is not for everybody. In fact, I would go as far as saying it's not for the average investors as they don't have the required knowledge and mindset. Without first learning the basics, you'll be hard put to make any real money in the world of options. Misjudging the market direction or choosing the wrong option strategy might even cost you thousands of dollars. My cousin is, for example, financially unprepared to deal with the potential losses. He doesn't have the market acumen to spot trends that might affect the value of options. Unlike stocks, options will expire and there is always a possibility that all your contracts expire worthless on the expiration date.
You can make tens of thousands of dollars in options trading. Using football as an analogy, if you are fast, well prepared and have a burning desire to win, you will. However, you must still know the rules of the game very well. To be truly effective, you need to know what are the drivers of option prices. If you are willing to invest the money and time to educate yourself it is entirely possible to make massive profit in the options market. However, most people I met don't want to spend the time to learn the rules of the game, they just want quick money.
In my opinion, options trading is not suitable for retirees, as the investment goal of retirees should be capital preservation and current income. Bonds and Treasury notes are more appropriate. If you're in your 20s to 50s, options can give you the financial leverage you need.
Most retail investors lose money trading options while institutional investors pocket the big profit. Success comes from experience, instead of risking your own money, I will give you all the help you need to be successful in options trading. The sooner you begin, the faster you'll get where you want to go.
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