Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

How to Trade Futures Options

 

Learning how to trade futures options starts with the fundamentals. A good place for a beginner to start learning how to trade futures options is where trading occurs, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE). The CBOE has online tutorials in how to trade options and how to trade futures options. If you are interested in just what is a long straddle the process starts with learning options and futures basics. The Options Institute of the CBOE is a set of comprehensive online tutorials. The three categories are Options Basics, How a Trade is Made, and Advanced Strategies. So, the best place to start learning how to trade futures options is with the basics. The basics have to do with the fundamentals of listed options and just what puts and calls are. How to trade futures options includes options strategy and includes the details of futures options pricing.

Before learning what is an options strategy the beginning futures options trader should learn about options premiums, pricing models and using the options calculator. How to trade futures options will include learning about put/call parity, time premium, and volatility as well as in, at, and out of the money contracts. More detailed information will include using what is called the Black-Sholes model in making decisions in trading. Beginners will learn about how fundamentals determine the price of an option, its theoretical value. As the beginner learns how to trade futures options he will move into the electronic world of trading. Learning about trading options on futures will involve learning many options trading terms.

Learning trading starts with learning about how the CBOE trading floor works and the different roles of investor, brokerage firm, market maker, and floor broker in a futures option transaction. The trader will learn about the various types of options orders. Learning how to trade futures options will also include information about various types of markets and how they may affect trading. The trader will come to understand options trading leverage as it applies to trading futures options as well.

Advanced strategies for how to trade futures options will go into detail about selling puts. This is overall a profitable options trading strategy but can be dangerous for the beginner. The CBOE tutorial will cover the obligations incurred in selling puts on futures and the risk versus profit potential of selling puts in general. It will also help the new trader understand when and how conservative traders sell puts and just when aggressive traders will do the same. The reasons are commonly different. There are a number of specific trading considerations when selling puts that must be taken into account by all traders. Advanced traders learn vertical spreads such as a bull call spread. In each case the trader needs to understand the profit potential and the risk involved. A basic factor in how to trade futures options is learning the six pricing components of options, how volatility changes options values, and how values change with time. Options trading of futures can be quite profitable for the well informed and diligent trader. It starts with learning the basics and progresses from there.

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