Online trading accounts. Some people call them a gift from the Gods! Instant access to a
world of near endless trading opportunities. Seamless executions with one click
of a mouse.
It's 2:30 p.m. on a Wednesday
afternoon and the stock “Caterpillar” is down $2.15 on the day and up
30 cents in the last ten minutes. The DJI was down nearly 200 points around 11:30 a.m. and has now rallied back to being down only 40 points. Many stocks seem to be rebounding from their lows of the day. Would this be a good time to
purchase a slightly "out of the money" Call option on "Caterpillar" which expires on Friday with the hopes that this upward directional movement will
continue over the next twenty or thirty minute time period?
That’s the length of time it might take for a Call option priced
at $185.00 to jump up to $250.00 or beyond. After you deduct the costs of
commissions you would still be
left with a profit of $40.00 or so. Do that a couple of times a day.
Not bad for observing a short term price swing.
You do not have to
be a “Rhodes Island Scholar” to be part of this world. You are
not going to lose your house to the bank if your early days
trading create losses of $250.00, $450.00 or $650.00. It is more
about using the knowledge gained from previous trades to evaluate the
risks involved in doing your next trade. It is learning how to
protect yourself from taking unnecessary risks like holding onto random
options positions over the weekend when who knows what might happen. It's also about
learning how to read to your intuitions.
My name is Peter and
many moons ago I did a short gig as a “Merrill Lynch”
stockbroker. I now work in an unrelated profession, but I still have
a passion for day trading Call options (betting on stocks to go up) and Put options
(betting on stocks to go down). Well hold on, betting is not the
correct word. Nor or are the words speculating, hoping or praying. Perhaps
a better word is anticipating. Anticipating individual stocks to make short term directional moves upwards or downwards.
I have designed this site to show people the types of trades I make and why I do them.
Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. I mostly do small dollar amount trades and
there are times on some Fridays when I do multiple
trades. I like Fridays for trading Call and Put options the best on options that expire that day because that is the day of the week you can get the most bang for
your buck if you correctly anticipate which way an individual stock is going to
move. One of my favourite stocks to trade options on is “Caterpillar” because daily swings of two or three dollars is often the norm and it is a stock void of most chatter.
There are times when I will take a week off from trading, knowing I
will be not be handicapped when I return to the action. The world of
option trading always offers trading opportunities. Without any further
introductions let me share with you some of my most recent trading
experiences.
I offer no promise
of instant successes and I do not encourage you to do what I do. I
just think that people in general will benefit from being exposed to platforms like this.
Cheers.
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