How to explain Options in simple terms to friends?

Quote from professorkev:

How do you explain options to people who have never heard of them? THe other day someone asked me if I was worried about a market crash again? I explained to them I do worry about that and thats why I choose solid compnaies and less risky ones and that I trade in options and use those options to insure any losses. THe I explained options are like small insurance policies that are tradable and whose value goes up and down and their values are based on several factors. They were still confused!

Tell them to buy or sell one and then they will instantly get it.
 
Quote from RandomZen:
How about .. . . "Trying to collect nickels in front of a bulldozer?" :p
......and sometimes you are the one who is operating the bulldozer. :)
 
Quote from professorkev:
They were still confused!
When your friends suffer from insomnia, you can be a real "friend" and explain options trading to them. :cool:
 
The best way is to tell your friends, no offense intended of course,
that they are not intelligent enough to understand what you do....:D
 
Quote from professorkev:

How do you explain options to people who have never heard of them? THe other day someone asked me if I was worried about a market crash again? I explained to them I do worry about that and thats why I choose solid compnaies and less risky ones and that I trade in options and use those options to insure any losses. THe I explained options are like small insurance policies that are tradable and whose value goes up and down and their values are based on several factors. They were still confused!

Here's how...
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Idio...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242838879&sr=8-1
 
Lawyer joke on the subject

No analogy with options intended, of course! :D

A grade school teacher was asking students what their parents did for a living. Tim, you're first, she said. What does your mother do all day?
Tim stood up and proudly said, She's a doctor.

That's wonderful. How about you, Amie? Amie shyly stood up, scuffed her feet and said, My father is a mailman.
'Thank you, Amie, said the teacher. What about your father, Billy?

Billy proudly stood up and announced, My daddy plays piano in a whorehouse.

The teacher was aghast and promptly changed the subject to geography. Later that day she went to Billy's house and rang the bell. Billy's father answered the door. The teacher explained what his son had said and demanded an explanation.

Billy's father said, I'm actually an attorney, but how can I explain a thing like that to a seven-year-old?
 
Quote from jficquette:

Tell them to buy or sell one and then they will instantly get it.

Not true.

And if they do get it, that's the worst possible way to introduce someone to options. Your suggestion would be helping someone go broke in a hurry.

Mark
 
Thanks guys for the enjoyable and somewhat amusing responses. I giuess then that options are just something that people don't generally know about and it's just one of those things of the profession that will confuse people (like an ER doctor explaineg a complicated procedure).

Thanks!
 
Quote from dagnyt:

Not true.

And if they do get it, that's the worst possible way to introduce someone to options. Your suggestion would be helping someone go broke in a hurry.

Mark


I mean just one cheap one. Do it in a Simulator. Once you have position its automatic understanding of what the concept is.

Strategies, technique, that's different story. The OP was speaking to explaining what they are.

Thanks,

John
 
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