Are you well-schooled in options trading? If not, it’s critical you become well educated in option trading jargon, option trading strategies, and option trading systems before you attempt it yourself.
Why is continuing option education an important part of your trading career? Most beginning traders understand that they need to learn the basics of options trading before they start putting their money into the market and losing it. Many advanced and professional traders know enough about options to understand that there’s always something new to learn about the options market and the funky things it can do. It’s the in-betweeners, those who have enough option education to get in there and turn a few successful trades, who often think they’ve learned enough to go it in the real world arena.
Are you ready to move beyond the basics as an options trader? If you already know how to read an options chart and understand how a short works and why a naked put is risky business, you may think you know enough to get out there in the real world and trade. Most brokerage houses would agree with you – after all, they get their fee whether you make a profit or book a loss on your trade. Other traders won’t care how much option education you’ve got – after all, your ignorance can be their profit. In fact, the only person that continued option education will benefit is you. Why would you deny yourself something that will help you make more money by recognizing and making more successful trades?
More to Option Education Than Learning How to Trade
Options trading has a lot in common with gambling. In fact, when you buy and sell options, you are essentially betting that the price of an asset will increase or decrease – and the more you know, the better are your odds of making the right bet. The fact is that there are dozens of combinations of trades you can make in nearly any situation. Each of them provides a different risk profile, and each is most useful to achieve a certain goal.
You could spend years figuring out the various spreads, strategies and combinations on your own – years in which you’ll invariably guess wrong repeatedly – but why would you spend all those years rediscovering the wheel? When you invest in a good option education course, you’ll get a comprehensive overview of the best-known trading strategies, including how to recognize the best situations in which to use them. As you learn more, you’ll discover more obscure trading patterns and the strategies that make them work for you.
In addition to taking formal courses, your option education should also include subscribing to and regularly reading columns and blogs written by option trading experts. You’ll often find tips to help you improve your own trading strategies, and ongoing commentary on real world option trading advice that you can’t get from a published book or standard course.
The best and most experienced traders know that you never stop learning. Whether you’re a beginning options trader or one who’s been around the block a time or two, take your cue from the most successful traders in the world and continue your option education as long as you continue to trade.
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