7 Steps to Success Trading Options Online

Options are perhaps the most strategically versatile of all financial vehicles, with unique characteristics that give them a nearly universal appeal to investors. After all, what other vehicle can provide the promise of potentially limitless profits, yet require only a small initial cash outlay and, in most cases, offer precisely defined risks? That appeal is probably the primary reason you picked up this book in the first place. You like the option concept, and you’d love to be an active and artful trader — but you haven’t quite figured out how to accomplish that goal.

Oh, sure, you’ve read up on the main option strategies — and even done a few option trades. Perhaps more than a few. Most modern stock investors have. And some of those trades have generated nice profits — certainly nice enough to keep your interest alive. But, in spite of their many advantages, options have yet to give you the overall results you’d like to achieve — the stellar success you know is possible. And you want to know why!

That’s what this book is meant to explain. It’s my contention, you see, that the majority of today’s retail (non-professional) option investors fail to achieve their ultimate goals for one simple reason. No, it’s not because of the specific options they choose to trade, nor is it due to the particular strategies they elect to use. While these issues are certainly important, I believe the major barrier blocking full success for most option investors is the cumbersome, inefficient and often costly process by which they actually trade.

To be more precise, if you’re getting your research information, obtaining your price quotes and placing your option orders via telephone — talking one-on-one with a full-service (or even discount) stock broker — then you’re not competing on a level playing field. Today’s equity options market is fully computerized, ultra-fast paced and dominated by electronically plugged-in professional and institutional traders equipped with the latest research available on the companies they follow. If you’re going to successfully play in such an arena, then you have to trade electronically, too. Otherwise, your data’s too old, your actions are too slow and you are almost certainly paying fees that are too high. Thus, the only way you can hope to reap maximum option profits today is to instantly and directly access the markets through an online brokerage firm—preferably one that specializes in options.

If you’ve been trading options “the old-fashioned way” for very long, you may question the certainty with which I make that statement. However, given the impact computers and improved communications technologies have had on the financial markets over the past decade, I’ll stand by it. In fact, just for emphasis, I’ll even restate it in a slightly different way:

Regardless of how much experience you may have had, if you haven’t traded options online, then you haven’t really traded options!

Contents:

• KEY STEP NO. 1: Learn How the Modern Electronic Option Markets Work
• KEY STEP NO. 2: Utilize the Most Effective Trading Strategies
• KEY STEP NO. 3: Choose the Proper Underlying Assets
• KEY STEP NO. 4: Plan an Appropriate Exit Strategy
• KEY STEP NO. 5: Don’t Let the Details Defeat You
• KEY STEP NO. 6: It’s Real Money, So Manage It
• KEY STEP NO. 7: Use the Right Online Broker
• SUMMARY/CONCLUSION—Take the Online Path to Option Profits

7 Steps to Success Trading Options Online By Larry D. Spears pdf