Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The Difference Between Trading Stocks And Stock Options

By Dan Sewinski

In the stock market industry, the trade for stocks and stock options are often interchanged and many may be confused between the concepts behind these types of trades. However, what you should know is that these two have very different characteristics from each other, and using them interchangeably can be very lethal if you want to engage in the stock trading game.

You can be guided on making a smart business decision on which particular trade you would actually want to make your investments,knowing the difference between these two would not only save you on making serious trading mistakes.

By definition, stocks are actually shares of a particular company that can be traded through the act of buying or selling by an investor. If you happen to own a particular stock from a company, you are entitled to certain rights, which may include a profit share from earnings. You may also have the liberty to sell your share of stock if you no longer desire it.

The stock option is not the stock or share of a compnay, it is the rights of the stock. You can sell or purchase the stock at a predetermined price with a time frame, but you do not get the profit from the company.

When you sell stock options, you are actually creating a certain degree of security for the company as well as for yourself. In this way, the parties involved can make sure that money is actually made to the frequent trade that happens.Take note that in doing transactions for stock options, there will always be a buyer and a seller, and this may not always hold true when compared to stocks.

In comparing the benefits of trading stocks and stock options, many experts would claim that stock options might be a promising gamble for companies and individuals, especially if you have adequate experience in the trading game and can substantially use very good strategies to survive. However, the same results might not be expected if you are only a beginner.

Therefore in trading options, there are fewer risks involved on the part of the buyer, especially when it comes to the possibility of losing a lot of money. And it may even give promises of profitable gains.What makes a lot of experts prefer options trading is usually because in this particular trade, no matter what would happen to the underlying security, an option buyer cannot lose to more than that of the initial price paid for the rights.

But on the other hand, the seller may experience greater risks. There may be a possibility that one has to deliver or take deliveries of the stock shares. Unless the option is actually covered by a different option, then the seller may end up losing much more than the stock options original price.

If you are not very familiar about how to prevent numerous losses, then you should practice the traditional trading of stocks as it is much simpler.

Just make sure that you take the time to understand concepts and strategies behind stock options before you actually start trading.However, if you do believe that you can manage then options trading may give you many promising positive results.

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