Skip to main content

ABC of Options trading

I remember several years ago when I asked one of my brokers to explain what 'Options' was, he told me so many things which made no sense at all to me at that time. Talks about option premiums, calls and puts can be extremely confusing for somebody who has no idea at all about all these things. I will now try explaining it to you using the simple principles of learning things the Happionaire way.

In the past as soon as I learnt about options, I got tempted and traded in them. Since the returns possible are quite high, a lot of us get tempted very easily. Sometimes we made huge profits trading in options and sometimes we made losses. In the end I don’t think I made any substantial amount of money trading in options. Luckily I didn’t risk too large an amount and learnt a lot from the mistakes I made.

'Options' explained in a very simple way by sharing a small story below.

Let us say you want to buy an apartment. After searching a lot you find a nice apartment that costs Rs 10 lakh. (I know many of you might be wondering where we can get Rs 10 lakh apartments.

Since you like the flat so much, you speak to the builder and tell him to block the flat for you. You want to consult with your family and will tell him for sure in one month. The builder tells you that you will have to give him Rs 10,000 to block the apartment. You can either pay him the entire Rs 10 lakh after one month and take the property or alternatively in case your family doesn’t like it you can let it go but you will lose your Rs 10,000.

You think about it, and decide Rs 10,000 is not too big an amount to pay for the flat. You pay the amount and the builder blocks the apartment in your name for a period of one month. Anytime you can pay him Rs 10 lakh and the apartment is yours.

In fact you have fans offering you Rs 15 lakh for the same apartment. You have blocked the flat for yourself at a price of Rs 10 lakh. This means if you sell the flat you will make a profit of Rs 5 lakh. However you have not invested Rs 10 lakh but only Rs 10,000 to block the flat in your name.

You decide to sell the flat at Rs 15 lakh. From that you give the builder Rs 10 lakh and keep the remaining Rs 5 lakh for yourself. This means you have invested Rs 10,000 and in return got Rs 5 lakh in a period of less than a month.

This is a very simple example which tries to help you understand how options work. Your maximum risk in the above case was Rs 10,000 but maximum profit potential was unlimited unlike Futures where the risk can be more than the capital invested.

The above example can be called a Call Option? This type of option increases in value when things go in the positive direction. If you buy a call option for the NIFTY, it will rise as the NIFTY rises. In the stock market, options can be used as tools to minimize risks as well as trading tools.

Options can be traded in a similar way like stocks. For instance you can tell your broker to buy a call option if you are bullish or alternatively you can tell him to buy a put option if you are bearish.

Options need you to be more aware and alert about things happening in the short term. Very few people can do both trading and investing together.

Popular posts from this blog

How to Decide your asset allocation with Mutual Funds?

Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Buy Gold Mutual Funds Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India) How to Decide your asset allocation ? The funds that base their equity allocation on market valuation have given stable returns in the past. Pick these if you are a buy-and-forget investor. Small investors are often victims of greed and fear. When markets are rising, greed makes the small investor increase his exposure to stocks. And when stocks crash to low levels, fear makes him redeem his investments. But there are a few funds that avoid this risk by continuously changing the asset mix of their portfolios. Their allocation to equity is not based on the fund manager's outlook for the market, but on its valuations. Our top pick is the Franklin Templeton Dynamic PE Ratio Fund, a fund of funds that divides its corpus between two schemes from the same fund house-the...

How to generate a UAN Online

Best SIP Funds Online   In order to make Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) accounts portable, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) had launched the facility of Universal Account Number (UAN ) in 2014. Having a UAN is now mandatory if you have an EPF account and are contributing to it. So far, you got this number from your employer and every time you changed jobs, you had to furnish this number to the new employer.  However, in order to make it easier for you to get a UAN , and without your employer's intervention, the EPFO now allows you to go online and generate a UAN on your own. This facility can be used by freshers, or new employees, who are joining the workforce as well as by employees who have older EPF accounts but do not have a UAN as yet. As a new employee, you can simply generate a UAN and provide the number to your employer at the time of joining, when you need to fill up forms for your EPF contribution. As per a circula...

Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Debt Option

Reliance Regular Savings Fund - Invest Online     The scheme aims to generate optimal returns consistent with moderate levels of risk. It will invest atleast 65 per cent of its assets in debt instruments with maturity of more than 1 year and the rest in money market instruments (including cash or call money and reverse repo) and debentures with maturity of less than 1 year. The exposure in government securities will generally not exceed 50 percent of the assets. The fund uses a mix of relatively low portfolio duration with active investments in higher-yielding corporate bonds. It does not take aggressive duration calls but tries to improve returns by cherry-picking corporate bonds. This is reflected in the fund's returns matching the category and benchmark for five years - at 8.4 per cent - but lagging behind the category during a raging bull market in bonds in the last one year. The fund has been a consistent but not chart-topping performer in the income category. Despite its ...

Am you Required to E-file Tax Return?

Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Invest In Tax Saving Mutual Funds Online Buy Gold Mutual Funds Leave a missed Call on 94 8300 8300   Am I Required to 'E-file' My Return? Yes, under the law you are required to e-file your return if your income for the year is Rs. 500,000 or more. Even if you are not required to e-file your return, it is advisable to do so for the following benefits: i) E-filing is environment friendly. ii) E-filing ensures certain validations before the return is filed. Therefore, e-returns are more accurate than the paper returns. iii) E-returns are processed faster than the paper returns. iv) E-filing can be done from the comfort of home/office and you do not have to stand in queue to e-file. v) E-returns can be accessed anytime from the tax department's e-filing portal. For further information contact Prajna Capit...

IIFL NCDs

Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Mutual Funds Online Download Tax Saving Mutual Fund Application Forms Call 0 94 8300 8300 (India) IIFL NCDs IIF's six-year unsecured NCD 2012 Risk-wary investors should stay away from this issue, and even, risk-taking ones should think twice It is a public issue of unsecured redeemable non-convertible debentures ( NCDs ) by India Infoline Finance ( IIF ), an unlisted company, which is a 98.9 per cent subsidiary of India Infoline, a listed company. The issue seeks to raise Rs 250 crore with an option to retain over-subscription up to Rs 250 crore taking the total potential issue amount to Rs 500 crore. It will be open for public subscription from September 5 to September 18 with a minimum application size of Rs 5,000 in the form of five NCDs of face value Rs 1,000, TENURE & RATES: IIF will redeem the NCDs at the end of six years, and investors wanting out before six years will be able to sell the...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Invest in Tax Saving Mutual Funds Download Any Applications
Transact Mutual Funds Online Invest Online
Buy Gold Mutual Funds Invest Now