What Is A Stock Option?

An option is a contract to buy or sell a specific financial product officially known as the option's underlying instrument or underlying interest. For equity options, the underlying instrument is a stock, ETF, or similar product. The contract itself is very precise. It establishes a specific price, called the strike price, at which the contract may be exercised, or acted on prior to the expiration date. When an option expires, it no longer has value and no longer exists.

Options come in two varieties, CALLS and PUTS, and you can buy (hold or go long) or sell (write or go short) either type. You make those choices - whether to buy or sell and whether to choose a CALL or a PUT - based on what you desire to achieve as an options investor.

A CALL is the right to buy 100 shares of stock at a fixed price per share, any time between purchase of the call and the specified deadline in the future. The time is limited. As a long call buyer, you acquire the right to buy the stock and as a short call seller, you grant the right to someone else. A short call seller (writer) must also be willing to deliver or has the obligation to sell 100 shares at the strike price if the long call buyer (holder) exercises the option.

A PUT is the opposite of a call. It is a contract granting the right to sell 100 shares at a fixed price per share and by a specified expiration date in the future. As a long put buyer, you acquire the right to sell the stock and as a short put seller, you grant that right to someone else. A short put seller (writer) must also be willing to acquire or has the obligation to buy 100 shares at the strike price if the long put buyer (holder) exercises the option.

Long-term Equity AnticiPation Securities (LEAPS) are simply long-term options that expire at dates up to 39 months in the future, as opposed to shorter-dated options that tend to last no longer than nine (9) months.

RISKS WITH OPTIONS TRADING

Option trading is risky so your funds should be your speculative capital or money you can afford to lose. You should only use funds that you are willing and able to comfortably lose.

Investments in the securities markets, and especially in options, are speculative and involve substantial risk. You can lose your entire investment. Individual results may vary from those achieved by our financial newsletter recommendations and no actual investment positions are taken by the newsletter. Only you, with the assistance of a qualified securities professional (personal financial adviser or broker), can determine what level of risk is appropriate for you and how, when, and where you should participate in the options markets. Our recommendations should only be considered by sophisticated investors who are aware of the risks in options trading.

For detail information on options risks, see Chapter X of The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) "CHARACTERISTICS AND RISKS OF STANDARDIZED OPTIONS" - booklet.

For more information go to http://www.stockoptionking.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Theodore_Peroulakis

Read more!

Basics of Forex Trading

This article gives an introduction about the basics of trading Forex online, a brief explanation of the markets and the major benefits of trading forex online. Foreign exchange or forex are all terms used to describe the trading of the world's many currencies. The forex market is the largest market in the world, with trades amounting to more than 1.5 trillion dollars every day. The foreign exchange market has no central clearing house or exchange and is considered an over-the-counter (OTC) market. Forex traders are generating incredible wealth day after day from the comfort of their home. Foreign exchange is normally traded on margin. A relatively small deposit can control much larger positions in the market.

Forex trading takes place directly between the two counterparts necessary to make a transaction, whether over the telephone or on electronic brokerage networks all over the world. This is a trade that includes simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another one. There are two reasons to buy and sell currencies. About 5% of daily turnover is from companies, and governments that buy or sell products and services in a foreign country must convert profits made in foreign currencies into their domestic currency. The other 95% is trading for profit, or speculation. The currency combination used in the trade is called a cross (for example, the Euro/US Dollar, or the GB Pound/Japanese Yen.).

The market is called the spot market because trades are settled immediately, or "on the spot". One of the major benefits of trading forex is the opportunity to trade 24 hours a day from Sunday evening (20:00 GMT) to Friday evening (22:00 GMT). Unlike stock trading, currency trading on the Forex market is not cut short at the "close" of each day's trading. The benefit of Forex being a 24 hour a day market is that there are little or no gaps in the market, meaning there is no chance that prices will close one day and reopen the next day. The fact that forex is often traded without commissions makes it very attractive as an investment opportunity for investors who want to deal on a frequent basis.

Since the market is always moving, there are always trading opportunities, whether a currency is strengthening or weakening in relation to another currency. When you trade currencies, they literally work against each other. Different currencies pay different interest rates. The interest rate differential doesn't usually affect trade considerations unless you plan on holding a position with a large differential for a long period of time. This is one of the main driving forces behind foreign exchange trends. You can have both a positive and a negative interest rate differential, so it may work for or against you when you make a trade. It is inherently attractive to be a buyer of a currency that pays a high interest rate while being short a currency that has a low interest rate. Fortunately, there are no daily limits on foreign exchange trading and no restrictions on trading hours other than the weekend. This means that there will nearly always be an opportunity to react to moves in the main currency markets and a low risk of getting caught without the opportunity of getting out.

A forex trading method with a high winning percentage is rewarding psychologically, keeps your morale high and is enjoyable to trade. A string of profits will build your confidence. Losses have to be kept small and wins should be larger than losses. You can make big money working only a few hours a day or week on your computer. You can trade from anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection.

Andrew Daigle is the owner, creator and author of many successful websites including ForexBoost, a free Forex educational site to learn Forex trading strategies and a ForexBoost blog for keeping online Forex trading records.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Daigle

Read more!

Free FOREX Trading E-books

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently around US$ 1.9 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks.

Free FOREX Trading E-Books are available for download all in one page at http://www.hubd.cn/forex/

Read more!

Life Holdings

Life Holdings is an effectively managed investment pool. Betfair's Sports and Games Exchange Market is Life Holdings activity primary source of profit (60% of Life Holdings capital is traded here). Foreign Exchange trading is Life Holdings secondary source of profit.

Since opening in November 2006, Life Holdings weekly performance has ranged from 2.50% to 5.80% net profit in just one week. Performance is not guaranteed, but averaged over a longer period of time, it should be between 2.50% and 4.00% net profit per week. Starting from November 2006 until May 2007 Life Holdings have averaged 3.35% net profit per week for 28 weeks.

The minimum deposit is set at $200 for both e-gold and E-bullion. The maximum is set at $20,000 per week for both e-gold and E-bullion. After joining with the minimum $200 deposit you can make additional deposits starting from $10, as often as you want.

Unless you have opted for the compounding of profits over a period of time, your profits will automatically be paid starting the first Saturday to the e-currency account you deposited from.

There is no specified investment term, so you have to request your principal back in order to get it. You can request your principal after the principal lock-up period of 2 month (8 weeks) has expired. Principal cash-outs take between 3 and 7 working days to be completed.

Life Holdings no longer offer referral bonuses.

Life Holdings update can be found at Online Investment Porgrams blog.

Read more!

Learn Forex Currency Trading Online

Forex currency trading is now one of the hottest trading markets in the world today. So by learning about Forex currency trading online you could not only open the door to some incredible investment opportunities, but you may also be able to build a much more diversified investment portfolio for yourself. So how you learn forex currency trading online? Well in this article I will attempt to provide you with some information that will answer this question.

Recently, many people have become interested in forex currency trading online possibly because they heard of the large amounts of money that can be made. As a result, many big companies have now set up online currency trading operations. These websites are certainly of great help to anyone who is actually interested in learning about online Forex currency trading for themselves.

These forex currency trading websites provide you with training methods where you can learn about the subject of online Forex currency trading very easily. They will provide you with details on what are the securest and safest places for you to conduct your online trading and also how to use the various online tools and resources.

There is one particular site where you can learn about Forex currency trading online. It is the "Forex Online Trading Program" which as been created by the National Futures Association (NFA) at www.nfa.futures.gov. It starts by teaching you the basics of forex currency trading and as you progress through each step, it will provide you with the answers to any questions you may have about forex currency trading.

It is important when you are looking for a site that provides online Forex training to choose one where you will be comfortable and will be able to easily follow the information that are provided to you. Forex forums are an good source of information and you can get answers to questions you have from more experienced forex traders.

By remembering the above points, you should be able to find a good forex currency trading website that will help you find some incredible investment opportunities in the future.

Ricky Lim runs a learn forex trading online site for beginners at http://www.learn-forextrading.net. Visit his site today for more forex tutorials and articles.

Ricky Lim

Read more!

Online Investing

We are working more hours for less money.
Our job keeping us away from our family.
Children are cared by people other than their own parents.
Imagine a business of your own where you have.
No boss, no commute and no employees.
Total control of deciding when, how long, and where you work.
Spending more time with your family.
Having the free time to do the things you really enjoy.
How to make money and improve lives.
Long term investment/pension planning
Creating residual income even in your sleep

Whoever moves first will be the ones to benefit over the next years
Timing is critical
Be among the first movers
Make a decision
Take control of your live

There are no guarantees in life about anything, whether a new book you buy won't be disappointing or the person you marry will be the wrong one. Same is true for investments. If you want a "guarantee", you should not invest at all because any improvement in life means taking a risk. There is always some element of risk. Yes, it can be a low or high risk, but still a risk.

Even if you put your money under your mattress or in the sugar bowl, then there is the risk it will get stolen. Put it in a bank, and the bank can go under with bad management or from theft and fraud. Doctors can do the same thing, believing they will get rich, but may end up working in a private hospital for pretty average wages and horrible hours of like 18 to 24 hours at a time with no sleep in between.

It is common knowledge for anyone that has spent any time on the internet, that the vast majority of internet opportunities are outright scams and those that aren't are often run with very poor professional and investment standards.

I will make an offer that you hardly refuse. After extensive research and due diligence in credible and worthwhile offshore investment programs has been reviewed, proven and profitable online investment programs are introduced.

Don’t put all of your money in one single investment program. Please invest responsibly at your own risk within your limits. Profits are expected, but there is not explicit guarantee. I will not be liable for any losses since high returns imply inherent high risks. Only spend what you can afford to lose.

Read more!

Online Digital Currency

E-currency is an electronic, world wide currency for the world wide web. It is an online payment system that combines money, gold or other precious metals with internet-based technology to provide a safe, easy and inexpensive way for anyone to transact business 24 hours a day. It is the future for online transactions and web business.

There are however, many online digital currencies to choose from. Those backed by gold have intrinsic value that guarantees the deposits of their members and are therefore a safer option. Of the gold backed currencies, e-gold was the early adopter and is by far the most popular service, followed by e-Bullion. They also provide a simple and secure interface for automated transactions and have a good track record of technical reliability.

Essentially they are digital precious metal in that accounts are held maintained as its weights. This value will change day by day as the value of precious metal changes. At the present time of uncertainty in the financial world, holding an e-gold or e-bullion account not only provides you with an efficient value transaction system, but represents a wholly sensible and appropriate hedging facility against monetary risk.

There is no cost to set up an e-gold account.
Click on this link to set up an e-gold account now.

Once you have an e-gold account you need to fund it. This you do from a digital currency provider or exchanger. Think of it as a foreign currency exchange, but because it is a small volume, your local bank won't provide this service. You need to use a particular exchanger that deals in this business. How you pay for your e-gold depends on the exchanger. Some will accept money orders, bankers drafts and even credit cards. Others will only accept bank wires.

Read more!

InfiniteLottto

InfiniteLotto [owned and run by a group of Professional Offshore Investors] was founded in March 2000 and have been producing a stable income of around 4% monthly. It has been setup and have run a small but successful investment fund for over 5 years, averaging a return of around 3%-5% per month on investments in a number of markets and companies, concentrating mostly on long term investments. Also a percentage of the funds is traded for futures and commodities.

Profits from trading are paid as prizes to its members. Distribution of profit by chance, may now range from zero to perhaps many hundreds of percent. In general, half the amount is paid as a monthly jackpot and the remainder paid as lesser prizes.

Minimum investment in InfinniteLottto is $100, which is equal to buying 100 tickets. Ticket purchases are defined as loans to InfinniteLottto. You can increase your investment by increments of $10. Each $1 ticket gives you the chance to win a monthly jackpot of up to $50,000 or lots of other cash prizes EACH AND EVERY MONTH, FOREVER !!

The minimum prize amount is $50 and the odds on winning a monthly prize with 100 tickets is 1 in 25. Assuming a monthly profit of 5%, a member with 5000 tickets could expect to win 24 prizes a year. Even if all these were minimum prizes, this would still be a profit of $1200 or 24%, however there is always a chance of a big prize in the mix which would increase this return considerably.

Unlike a normal prize draw you don't lose your money if you don't win! Even more unusual, you can sell your tickets back to InfiniteLottto. Once you buy your tickets they will be in the draw to win big cash prizes, each and every month. If you don't want to play anymore, then you can simply sell your tickets back to them, whenever you please. The minimum number of tickets to sell is 10. There is a 2% or $2 administrative fee on all ticket sales, whichever is greater.

Even if you do not win a prize InfiniteLottto will provide you with a minimum return. In any year that your tickets do not win a prize, InfiniteLottto will pay you 5% rounded down to the nearest ticket subject to overall profits. These bonus tickets will be automatically added to your existing tickets and they will compound annually. This benefit is mainly for those with a minimum number of tickets. As can be seen from the potential winnings above, those with significant numbers of tickets have excellent odds on winning regular prizes.

The first prize draw took place on 7 October, 2004. Prize draws take place on the seventh of each month and all winners are notified by email. Tickets are bought using E-gold and any prizes are paid back to the same E-gold account within 5 days of the draw. All tickets purchased up to and including the last day of the month will be entered into the very next Prize Draw. For example, tickets purchased on 30 November will go into the prize draw on 7 December and every month thereafter.

For many online investors interested in putting up just a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, then InfiniteLottto offers a very serious investment but with the fun and excitement of a potential big win as well. To maintain a successful investment porfolio you need to invest a considerable part of your money into such reliable and low return programs as InfiniteLotto. InfiniteLotto provides a great investing opportunity, with extremely low risk.

InfiniteLottto update can be found at Online Investment Porgrams blog.

Read more!

FeederFund

FeederFund is owned by a group of professional investors who are providing service through part of a larger proprietary organisation. FeederFund is incorporated as an IBC in an international tax haven and started operations on 12 October 2003.

FeederFund is a pool fund that enables you to invest in real credible and worthwhile offshore investment programs with low minimal investment. They only supports programs that will provide full disclosure on their principals and investments, and which pass stringent due diligence and risk analysis. FeederFund act as a service facility rather than a being responsible for producing the actual profits.

Most of these investment opportunities have higher minimums, sometimes as low as $5,000, but often $25,000 or even $50,000. FeederFund allows its members to participate in these bona fide programs through a pool fund with a far smaller minimum requirement. A member has the choice of placing amounts down to a minimum of $50, with any of the programs that FeederFund is associated with.

FeederFund currently offers 7 4 investment programs with various monthly interest.
InfiniteLottto (ILC)
Index Trading Systems (ITS)
FX Investment Group (FXIG)
Phoenix Select Holdings Inc. (PSHI)
Northsea Forex Group (NSFG)
JoyFund
Sierra Arbitrage Fund (SAF)

FeederFund is also affiliated with Sensatrust.org. This is an organisation run by a group of offshore investors to hold and validate due diligence information on affiliated organisations. SensaTrust will provide all such information to the relevant authorities in the event of fraud.

As of 12 December 2005 FeederFund is closed to new members. If you are not a member yet, you can't join now.

FeederFund update can be found at Online Investment Programs blog.

Read more!

ProfitOnHorse

ProfitonHorse are managed by a professional Sports Trader who specialize to trade at Sports Trading BetFair on Horse Racing Market. ProfitonHorse use its proven special method of trading combined with Money Management to make the investment fund safe with Low Risk and Medium Return.

Minimum invest is US$10. Investors will get a fixed unlimited profit up to 0.6% per day for every working day from Monday to Friday sent to your e-gold account automatically.

There's a 50% penalty if you withdraw your principal before you get your daily profit for 200 days. And there's 10% principal withdrawal fee if you withdraw your principal after you get your daily profit for 200 days.

ProfitOnHorse update can be found at Online Investment Porgrams blog.

Read more!