ShareDigest blog

Options vs. Other Instruments

Option trading provides many advantages over other plain stock trading. Leverage,
limited risk, insurance, profiting in bear markets, each-way betting or market going
nowhere are only a few. But let’s look at a couple in more detail.

Leverage

One thing to note before we go on is that the buyer of an options contract pays
an amount, known as the premium, to the option seller. An option seller is also
known as the writer of the option. The option premium is simply the amount paid
for the option.

When you buy an option contract from an option seller, you aren’t actually buying anything – no asset is actually transferred until the buyer chooses to exercise the optiono. It is just an agreement where the buyer has the option to decide if the transfer is to take place. But the option contracts value is determined by the underlying asset – Microsoft Shares as an example.

Options give the buyer the right to buy a number of shares of the underlying instrument
from the option seller. The amount of shares (or futures contracts) to buy is determined
by;

The number of option contracts, multiplied by the contract multiplier (also called
contract size) is different for most classes of options and is determined by each
exchange. In the US, the contract size for options on shares is 100.

This means that every 1 option contract gives buyer the right to buy 100 shares
from the option seller.

So, if you buy 10 IBM option contracts, it means that you have the right to buy
1,000 IBM shares at expiration if the price is right (10 x 100).

Note: In other countries such as Australia, the contract multiplier for stock options
is 1,000, which means the every option contract you buy entitles you to 1,000 underlying
share contracts. So pay attention to the contract specs before you begin option
trading.

This also means that the price of the option is also multiplied by the contract
multiplier. For example, say in the above you purchased 10 options contracts that
were quoted in the marketplace for 15c, then you would actually pay the seller $150.

This is a crucial concept to understand. If you go out and buy 5 IBM share options
for 15c that have a Strike Price of $25, then you will;

Pay the option seller $75

If you decide to exercise your right and buy the shares, you will have to buy 500
(5 x 100) (100 being the contract size) shares at the exercise price of $25, which
will cost you $12,500.

In this case, your initial investment of $75 has given you $12,500 exposure in the
underlying security.

Option trading is very attractive for the small investor as it gives him/her the
opportunity to trade a very large exposure whilst only outlaying a small amount
of capital.

Say you bought a $25 call option for $1 while the underlying shares were trading
at $26. If the market rallies to $27 the option must at least be worth $2 because
you can exercise your right at $25. So, even though the shares only went up 3.8%
you DOUBLED your money because you can now sell back the option for $2.

Penny stocks are also known to carry this type of risk/reward profile. Penny Stocks
are companies that have very low share prices. You can buy some stocks for as little as 10c. It is much more common for a penny stock to trade from 10c to 20c than it
is for Microsoft to trade from $25 to $50!

For this reason penny stock trading is becoming very lucrative for online speculators.
They can still trade the stocks outright as well as making massive returns if they
are correct about their view on market direction.

The only drawback with penny stocks is trying to pick which stocks to buy. I’m not
that familiar with trading penny stocks, however, I know of a great site that provides
stock picks for penny stocks every two weeks – <penny stock affiliate link>.
They have a free trial, so you can see for yourself whether penny stock trading
is for you or not.

Penny stocks can be risky though – there’s a reason why they’re so cheap, nobody
wants them! So, be careful to act on the right information.

Limited Risk

One of the biggest advantages option trading has over outright stock trading is to be able to take a view on market direction with limited risk while at the same time having unlimited profit potential. This is because option buyers have the right, not the obligation, to exercise the contract for the underlying at the exercise price. If the price is not right at the time of expiration, the buyer will forfeit his/her right and simply let the contract expire worthless. Let me give you an illustration.

Remember our initial example of Peter buying a Microsoft Call option? Here are the
details of that trade provided with the appropriate jargon;

Underlying: MSFT

Type: Call Option

Position: Long (i.e. bought the contract)

Strike Price: $25

Expiry Date: 25th May

At the time of the trade, Microsoft shares (the Underlying) were trading around
$30. The Call option contract had been valued and was trading at $6.5 – known as
the premium, but more on this under pricing.

So, from the above information we can conclude that after the 25th May, if Microsoft
is trading above $31.50 we can make a profit on this.

Why $31.50? Because we paid $6.50 for the right to have this option in the form
of a premium to the option seller. This means we must consider this in our profit
estimate. Therefore we add the option premium to the strike price to determine our
break even point.

A Profitable Trade

If Microsoft shares are trading at $40 by the 25th May, then we will elect to exercise
our right to Call the shares from the option seller. Then we will be assigned Microsoft
shares at the exercise price of $25, which is the same as if we actually bought
Microsoft shares for $25.

Note: If we exercise our right and take delivery of the shares, this means that
we will have to pay the full amount for the shares. So, the number of option contracts
bought multiplied by the contract size multiplied by the exercise price. If you
are planning to hold onto option contracts until expiry and take delivery, make
sure you have the cash!

But, they are now trading at $40 at the stock exchange! So, you have Microsoft shares
in your trading account with a purchase value of $25, yet they are trading at $40.
So, you can sell them at $40 and make $8.50 per share.

Why $8.50? Remember the premium we paid? We have to consider that with our profit
estimate.

Think about what happens as the underlying price continues to rise. You continue
to make more and more money once the stock price has exceeded the strike price.

But what about the downside risk?

A Losing Trade

Let’s imagine at expiration Microsoft shares are trading below our exercise price
of $25 at, say, $20. Will we decide to exercise our right and take delivery of the
shares and pay $25 per share? No way, because they’re only worth $20. So, we will
just do nothing and let the option contract expire worthless.

What have we lost though? We lose the premium that we paid to the seller, which
in this example was $6.5. That’s it. A lot less than if the stock plummeted and
we lost our entire investment.

What about if there is a stock market crash and Microsoft Shares are trading at
$5 at the time of expiration? The same as if the shares are trading at $20 – nothing.
We just let the option contract expire worthless and lose our premium – $6.5.

Limited Risk AND Unlimited Profit Potential

Can you see now how this type of strategy gives you the best of both worlds – both
limiting your risk and at the same time leaving you open to make unlimited profit
if the market rallies?

Not all option strategies have this payoff benefit. Only if you are buying options
can you limit your risk. For option sellers, this is the reverse – they have unlimited
risk with limited profit potential.

So, why would anybody want to sell options? Because options are a decaying asset,
which you can read more about under the Time Decay section.

Insurance

Another reason investors may use options is for portfolio insurance. Option contracts
can give the risk averse investor a method to protect his/her downside risk in the
event of a stock market crash.

Put Options

Call Options

Call options give an investor he right (but not the obligation) to buy a quantity of shares at a fixed price for the duration of the option up to date of expiration. The call option cosists of three variables:

1. The underlying stock;
2. The Expiration Date; and
3. The Strike Price.

What Are Options?

Options are one of several forms of derivative investment vehicles. That is, they are derived from an underlying investment such as property, stocks, futures etc. Here, and in all following articles, when we refer to options we will be discussing options related to shares on the stockmarket, known as Exchange Traded Options.

Put simply, an option is the right, but not the obligation, to
purchase or sell a fixed number of shares in a stock at a fixed price per share,
at any time up to a fixed date of expiration of the option. In order to obtain this
right, the option purchaser will pay what is known as the option “premium”.

We begin the explanation of options on stocks with a little story:

Lets define an option once again: An option (call) is a contract that gives the
owner the right,

but not the obligation, to purchase a security at a specified price
(strike price),

on or before a specified date (expiration date).

When trading options, the idea is to take advantage of the incredible leveraging
power of options. By making a relatively small investment in options,we can control
a much more valuable block of associated stock. In this way we receive the benefit
of the potential appreciation of that asset without owning it outright.

The expectation is that the market price of each lot will grow to $61,000 or

more, on or before a date one year in the future. $61,000 would be the break

even point,allowing enough appreciation to pay for the option. Any
increase

in price above $61,000 would be pure profit.

Each option contract controls a fixed number of shares in the underlying stock.
This number will vary depending upon which stock exhchange or country you are dealing
with. For example in Australia options listed on the ASX control parcels of 1000
shares, whereas in the US options contracts control 100 shares of the underlying.
This is something to be mindful of.

The two types of options
available: calls and puts