Use a call or a put option, strike price?
917710
Buy a call when you are expecting a stock to go up.  A call is an option to buy.\n\nBuy a put when you expect the stock to go down.  A put is an option to sell.\n\nThe strike price determines the 'sales price'\n\nIf you expect goog to bounce, you would by a call for Dec, Jan, Feb, whenever for a strike price of 500.  Dec call would cost you $8 per share (you need to buy in contracts consisting of 100 shares to trade options).  If goog goes past $508 in a true options trade, you profit every cent after that.  You could essentially trade the option when it got close to 500 if there was enough time for the option to have value.\n\nIf you are expecting goog to continue the downward trend, you would buy a put.  The $480 strike for goog Dec option is trading at $7.40.  You essentially have the option to sell goog at $480, so if goog goes down past 472.60 you make money for every cent after that.  Also with the call option, you could just sell your option with more value if the stock starts going down and you still have the intrinsic (time sensitive) value left on the option.\n\nGood luck.
1099933
buying puts is the best in view of the market volatility
15364
Puts and calls are examples of options in the stock and bond market. \n\nIn the special language of options, contracts fall into two categories - Calls and Puts. A Call represents the right of the holder to buy stock. A Put represents the right of the holder to sell stock. \n\nCall Options\nA Call option is a contract that gives the buyer the right to buy 100 shares of an underlying stock at a predetermined price (the strike price) for a preset period of time. The seller of a Call option is obligated to sell the underlying security if the Call buyer exercises his or her option to buy on or before the option expiration date. For example, an American-style WXYZ Corporation May 60 Call entitles the buyer to purchase 100 shares of WXYZ Corporation common stock at $60 per share at any time prior to the option's expiration date in May.\n\nPut Options\nA Put option is a contract that gives the buyer the right to sell 100 shares of an underlying stock at a predetermined price for a preset time period. The seller of a Put option is obligated to buy the underlying security if the Put buyer exercises his or her option to sell on or before the option expiration date. Likewise, an American-style WXYZ Corporation. May 60 Put entitles the buyer to sell 100 shares of WXYZ Corp. common stock at $60 per share at any time prior to the option's expiration date in May.\n\nThe Expiration Process\nAt any given time, an option can be bought or sold with one of four expiration dates. This is indicated by a month and year description. The expiration date is the last day an option exists. For listed stock options, this is the Saturday following the third Friday of the expiration month. Please note that this is the deadline by which brokerage firms must submit exercise notices. You should ask your firm to explain its exercise procedures including any deadline the firm may have for exercise instructions on the last trading day before expiration. \n\nExercising the Option\nOptions traders don’t actually have to buy or sell the underlying shares that are associated with their options. They can and often do simply opt to resell their options - or "trade out of their options positions". If they do choose to purchase or sell the underlying shares represented by their options, this is Called exercising the option. \n\nFrom the NASDAQ Website, where there is a neat table showing what these mean for buyers and sellers:\nhttp://www.nasdaq.com/options/ed_what2a.stm\n\nThere is a great discussion of these on the Motley Fool website:\n\nhttp://www.fool.com/foolu/askfoolu/2002/askfoolu020916.htm
421970
buying a put is fine however if stock stays flat, put will lose what is known as time value.  Put expires, which isn't to your advantage when you are thinking stock is going down.  You can hold short for a while, especially if it is not moving :).\nHowever if stock is moving up, you are protected :).  \nWhat you can do is buy call, buy put..that's known as a stradle.  So you can benefit from upside or downside movement.  The key is to find a stock that likes to move a lot (GOOG =D )\n\nAleks
461964
http://www.asx.com.au/investor/options/index.htm\n\nThis is the best website which gives an indepth and accurate information on Options and futures strategies.\nI am shure this will serve your purpose.
937789
Yes you can. Go to options.
454757
Yes and it does have to do with dividends.  You'll want to exercise early if the stock is about to pay a dividend and the "time value" of the option is less than the dividend.  \n\nWhat does that mean?  Well, a stock's price should drop after a dividend is paid so if the current market price is just slightly above your option's strike price, the option could go from an "in the money" option (meaning if you exercise you'll get some cash) to an "out of the money" option (meaning you'll get nothing).  Still, even this wouldn't mean that you'd definitely want to exercise the option unless the expiry date of the option was also coming up.  I.e. the stock price doesn't have a reasonable chance of recovering from the dividend payment to get back "into the money".
58263
Call options are commonly used to establish a price "ceiling" and a put creates a market "floor". Both can be used as a price speculation or price prtection. They follow futures markets but are more like an insurance premium and are not as volitile.
1144616
I just tried to answer this question, typed several paragraphs, then you pulled it. What's the deal?\n\nAnyway, I also sold the EUR this morning, but got stopped out on the spike up at 8:30 prior to the decline. It then declined 50 pips.\n\nIf you had used a trailing 20 pip stop, your trade would have worked out fine.\n\nDon't you move your stop to breakeven when it goes in your favor?\n\nYou did the right thing by executing on the short side, but just didn't manage it when it started running. You have to know that a news release that cements in another rate hike is going to cause volatitility.\n\nThe reasons it went a certain way are unimportant. Just because it doesn't do what you expect is no reason not to trade it. Just follow price and volume, increase your odds, and decrease your risk where and when possible. Sometimes there are no reasons, and you would rarely trade if you had to have a reason every time from some media talking head.\n\nTrade the Mini when volatility increases if you can't afford to lose $1,500.
379290
That's the definition.. but this is how they work:\n\nCall options: buy if you expect a stock to go up.\nPut options: buy if you expect a stock to go down.\n\nOptions were intended at first as insurance, you would buy option 'contracts' at a certain 'strike price' that would let you to buy 100 shares per contract at the specified strike price, regardless of whatever the stock was trading at. \n\nHowever, many people realized you can make A LOT of money by buying and selling the option contracts themselves. You can also lose everything. They have higher spreads (usually minimum of $0.10), and a lot more volatile since they're cheap. Use at your own discretion.
416990
An option tracks an underlying asset - a company's stock, or commodity like gold.  The value of the underlying asset and the time to expiration effect the value of the option.\n\nIf you have purchased a call option (right to buy at a specified price) the value goes down as the value of the underlying asset drops.\n\nIf you have purchased a put (right to sell at a specified price) the option value goes up as the value of the underlying asset goes down.\n\nFor puts and calls the value decreases over time - hence if the underlying asset value does not change today the option will be worth less tomorrow.
510550
When trading in in futures, an option is a contract which gives its holder the right to buy or sell an asset at some predetermined price within a specific period. \n\nif you have 100 shares of compnay XYZ, and u sell someone the right to buy ur shares at a certain price within 3 months, that person has the right to 'CALL' your shares at the price. these are called call options. I hope it makes sence.
87614
Since you're already just throwing money at the market, Here's three suggestions:\n\n1. Save up $1000 and make one good trade at a time. Don't worry about being left behind. Check out how William O'Neil trades, how Gary Kaltbaum trades, how Warren Buffett trades.\n\n2. Put it in mutual funds.\n\n3. Buy a single call option on awesome companies. Read William J. O'Neil's How to Make Money in Stocks. This is the most risky proposition of the three. Highest possible pay off too. You seem to like risk though! :-) Just keep in mind, if they're out of the money when they expire, they go to zero!\n\nOptions are not for everyone, they are very risky.
213342
You might be thinking of LEAPS. They are long term option like creations. All options/warrants/leaps lose value over time. The longer the time until they expire usually means they have a greater premium.\n\nIt is not something I would personally do.
263907
prob. talk to a laywer or something.
1155977
I do some day trading using TD Ameritrade Apex. They are VERY helpful and have very fast executions. You must have a lot of knowledge before day trading since it is risky and you can lose all your money within minutes. As of right now, I have the command center up and I am already down $41.00 today. It's been very volatile today, I had a gain of $20.00 this morning and I almost had a loss of $90 for a couple of seconds.
769801
Sure you can... talk to a discount broker. You can also throw your money into your trash can for faster results.