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If
you buy currency options, you can benefit from unlimited profit
potential and limited risk, the seller of an option has unlimited
risk and a limited gain but the odds are in favour of the seller, as
80% of options expire worthless in this article, we will look at how
to sell options correctly and make a great regular income.
What
is an Option?
First
let's look at exactly what an currency option is:
A contract is between
a buyer and a seller and gives the buyer the right (but not the
obligation) to buy or sell the underlying currency at a specified
price on an agreed upon date in the future. You can buy two types of
option which are call options and put options.
The buyer of a call
option has the right to buy the underlying currency at an agreed upon
price at a future date. A put option provides the buyer the right to
sell the underlying currency. The option buyer in theory has
unlimited profit potential and limited risk but the odds are stacked
against him and while the option seller has unlimited risk and a
limited gain, he has the odds of success on his side.
Sell
Options with Odds of 80% on your Side
Of course while you
can buy options you can also sell them and there are rules for doing
both to increase your odds of success and the rules for selling and
making money are the opposite of what you should do when you buy.
In
other articles we have looked at how to buy options and make money
and the two golden rules you have to remember are:
Buy
at or in the money options
Buy
time and make sure you have at least a few months on your side.
If
you are selling options the reverse is true – you want to sell out
the money options and options with limited time to expiry so time
decay kills them.
Selling
Option Premium for Profit
If
you are selling options you should have a well capitalized account to
ride out short term price spikes against you, you should also
diversify across a number of options.
The
best way to sell options is to sell into short term price spikes
which are generated by greed or fear. When the herd think that the
market will go on for ever and a price spike is occurring buying
options becomes expensive and you can collect plenty of premium,
selling out the money options above these prices spikes.
If
you want to sell options correctly, you need to have a good
understanding of standard deviation of price and volatility, because
if you are selling into greed or fear, the danger is the price spike
will run on and eat into the equity of your account.
Should
You Sell Options?
Selling
currency option premium should only be done by well capitalized and
experienced traders but if you do have the money and you are
confident in your system, you can make great currency profits with an
80% chance of the option expiring worthless and collect a lot of
premium to boost your account equity
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