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Old 01-23-2008, 10:16 AM
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David Waring David Waring is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Miami, FL
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Default Question on Options Trading

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Hi David,

I would first like to say that your site is great! Love the videos and information posted... it has really opened my vision on technical analysis trading and how it all fits it :-)

I am currently involved in stock options trading (only buying puts and calls to open a position) and wanted to know how you see them in terms of making some money on the side. Is it possible to become a successful trader in them? or from your experience, or other investors that you might know, would you say it is very hard / not the best way to trade?

I have developed a strategey and back tested it on past data... and it's success seems to out weight the failure.... Currently I look at holding positions for no more than 2 days and analyse charts: MACD, Stochastics, Volume Oscillator, etc and then make a decision on what options to buy. Do you have any advice?

Thanks in advance for your time and I look forward to the new videos and posts in the future!
Thanks for the question.

To the question of is it very hard to make money I would say that the answer to this question is all relative. The fact is that most people don't make money trading so I think most people would say yes it is hard to make money trading. At the same time however, unlike other occupations, people seem to think that they can read a book or take a few lessons and then trade profitably. With this in mind I would say that trading is like a lot of things it takes a lot of study learning and hard work to become successful. In addition to this you have a psychological element present in trading that does not really affect you in other occupations that you need to learn how to deal with.

So with this in mind my advice would be to read and study as much as possible and always continue learning about trading. Secondly I would say don't forget about the psychology of trading which is a very important topic. Thirdly I would say make sure you spend at least as much time if not more working on your strategy for exiting positions and position sizing as you do for picking your entry points, and lastly my advice would be trade small at first, keep track of your trades in a trading journal, only get bigger slowly as your strategy proves itself in real trading over the long term, and make sure your profit expectations are in line with reality.

People certainly make money trading options so it is as good as any other market in my opinion and offers some advantages that others don't such as the ability to trade small. Keep in mind however that the ability to control a lot of a financial instrument with a small amount of money like you can with options is a double edged sword meaning that you can make money quickly but you can loose it just as fast.

Hope that helps. If anyone else has any other input on this topic or if there are any other questions please feel free to post them below.

Best Regards,

Dave
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