OPTIONS

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

My Online Stock Option Brokers (Part 1)

In the previous post, I pointed out some factors you should consider when you’re choosing online broker for you.To help you find some more info for consideration, I’ll share with you here what I know about my own brokers. I personally use OptionsXpress (OX) and Interactive Brokers (IB). Hope the following info can be quite helpful.OptionsXpress (OX):Good for beginners. The system guides you step-by-step what you need to do when you’re placing a trade.Nice charts. They provide real-time streaming chart (powered by Prophet.Net) and real-time streaming...

Monday, May 28, 2007

List of Some Online Stock Option Brokers

Here is the list of some online stock option brokers. Hope this can help you doing the research. :)(Clicking on the following links will bring you directly to the options info page).* Interactive Brokers* OptionsXpress* Thinkorswim* Scottrade* TD Ameritrade* E*Trade Financial* Schwab* Fidelity* TradeStation* Trade King* Trading Direct* MB Trading* Zecco* OptionsHouse* TradeMonsterI’m sure this list is not complete. Please feel free to inform me if you know other online options brokers that are not listed above. I will add it in the list. Thanks....

Friday, May 25, 2007

How To Choose An Online Stock Option Brokers

To start trading options, you will need to find an online brokers with option trading facility and open an account with them. Online brokers usually offer relatively lower commission charges, so it’s good for keeping the trading cost low. High commission charges can slowly eat up your capital without you realizing it.There are many online option trading brokers out there. Finding the right online broker to meet your needs or requirements could be a quite difficult and daunting task.Basically, there are some factors you will need to consider: Commission...

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

OPTION PRICING: How Is Option Priced? (Part 2)

In Part 1, we know that there are 6 factors that affect option's price: option’s strike price, stock price, time to expiration, implied volatility, interest rate, and dividend.Nevertheless, the impact of interest rate and dividend are often considered negligible as compared to the other factors. Most of the time, for each level of strike price, an option’s price will move due to the movement of underlying stock price, volatility and time.The Black-Scholes...

Saturday, May 19, 2007

OPTION PRICING: How Is Option Priced? (Part 1)

Option price does not always move in conjunction with the price of the underlying stock. As such, it is important to understand what factors contribute to the movement in the option price, and what effect they have.There are 6 factors that affect option price:1. OPTION STRIKE PRICEStrike price determines whether an option is In-The-Money, At-The-Money, and Out-Of-The-Money.The more deeply In-The-Money (ITM), the higher the option price will be, as it carries more intrinsic value.The further an options is Out-Of-The-Money (OTM), the lower the option...

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Option Chain

Option Chain is a list of option prices of a particular underlying stock for various strike prices, expiration dates, and option types (calls or puts). This is where option traders get the current market price of an option during trading hours. The prices in the Option Chain will change throughout the trading day based on the stock price movement, volatility and time.A sample of option chain can be seen below.Picture courtesy of Optionsxpress.THE...

Monday, May 14, 2007

Finally The Blogger Problem Is Solved!

After being in an “agony” for over one week, finally the posting, editing and layout problems in the Blogger are resolved! In fact, these problems are not due to Blogger system, but because of the internet service provider issues. Thanks to the suggestions from people with the same “fate” in Blogger Help Group that now we have a solution to this problem. Even though it’s only a temporary solution, I am happy enough so long as I can blog properly now. Have a good d...

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

My Plan For This Blog

I am still on the way in developing the series on options trading basic summary. Just bear with me if you find the postings are still theoretical and “dry”. I intend to make these series as a summary of important points you need to note on the basic of options trading. I also want to help those who wish to learn option trading even from scratch to give them some idea about options trading.Subsequently, I plan to share on how to get started (e.g. finding online brokers, setting up real-time streaming charts, virtual trading, etc.). This is for the...

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Another Problems With Blogger

I’m having another problems with the Blogger. I couldn’t make any posting. My “Create Post” template looks weird. The horizontal task bar is transposed to vertical bar. Luckily, I manage to find the solution to this problem from the Blogger Forum, so now I can make this posting. But I am still having a problem with my “Layout” template in the Blogger. The “Add Page Element” is now missing. I am still trying to find the solution to this problem. Anyway, I will do more postings soon to catch up. Have a nice d...

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Problems With New Version of Blogger: Cannot Publish A Long Post

I encounter some problems with new Blogger. Don’t understand why I cannot publish a long post. Every time I publish quite a long post, the system will give me a warning like “Cannot connect with Blogger……” At first, I thought there was a problem with connection or Blogger is doing maintenance. But this problem seemed to continue for a few days, until I realized that actually it’s because I was trying to publish a long post. When I made the post shorter, I managed to publish it. I guess, based on the experience I had, the max word count I can publish...