Is option trading really profitable as a stand-alone trading practice?

[galvinlee888]

Option is no different than other instruments such as future, forex and etc.

The theory parts can be learn and teachable, it only take time but no magic- if you smart and have strong technical background, you can pick it up faster and vice versa.


To make money in options, you still need to have the edge, which is
1) you can pick the direction right in most case - up, down or side way market
2) you can predict the volatility in high level of accuracy

As usual, your edge has to bigger than your commission +slippage in order to profit.

 

[SteadyOptions]

The problem is that people will always look for shortcuts. It is especially true in trading/investing because it is so easy to start - just open and fund an account and you are ready to go.

"No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant" Words of wisdom from Mr Warren Buffet.

An engineer need 4 years of professional education before he is allowed to be even called an Engineer Trainee. Medical professional is required even much more. Then why do people think trading is any different? It doesn't take long before one starts to realize that trading is not easy as it seems on the surface (sadly after either account is wiped out or suffered a major loss). AT this point most just give up instead of investing time and money in their education.

 

[cmb]

I think options are good for learning how to trade. The normal process is to spend some time on a demo. Then Move to real money but small money, and then the final step is going in with a full account. I suggest starting with the Demo account in Options and then the small real money account in options. MY reasoning is that with option you need really catch the direction right within a 1 to 2 day timeframe, its it has to be a a solid move. So you get used to looking for buys off the dip, off of support lines, what ever your set ups are. Now when u start with real money, you can start with a 1k account. with options on a cash account, you can day trade 4 trades with a 250 dollar position, since options clear the next day....you can trade 4 more. if u try to daytrade stocks, your 1k isnt going to do very much when u have to wait 5 days after u use up your 3 dayrades on monday. Also options give u more leverage that you cant get with 1k on shares.

After you build your 500-1k account up to 5k...then u can add in some extra capital and start trading with 10k on shares.....now you will be able to make a go of it since trading shares is much easier in my opinion. and in the case that you are good at options....u can go after turning that 5k or 10k into 100k. I remember when I was tradining pennie stocks, one guy put a journal of tradining options, he turned 2k into 86k in 6 months or so... it was pretty good stuff. But shares is much easier for intraday scalping.

 

[HurricaneUS]

This guy does a great job at pretty much summing up everything you need to know about the viability of options trading:

http://proactinvest.net/essential-lessons-of-investing-options-are-the-kiss-of-death/

and

http://proactinvest.net/consumer-reportreview-sheridan-mentoring-the-art-of-options-income-trading/

 

[atticus]

Quote from HurricaneUS:

This guy does a great job at pretty much summing up everything you need to know about the viability of options trading:

http://proactinvest.net/essential-lessons-of-investing-options-are-the-kiss-of-death/

and

http://proactinvest.net/consumer-reportreview-sheridan-mentoring-the-art-of-options-income-trading/

lol

 

[HurricaneUS]

Quote from atticus:

lol

for the average bear..obviously you're an outlier

 

[comintel]

Quote from galvinlee888:

I assume the track record is based on the calculation without commission ?

He says:

"Prices listed above are those received and confirmed by the participating auto-trading brokers. Trade results account for slippage, but not for broker commissions, exchange fees, or interest on cash."

It looks as if he is trading about once a week.

I think you might have less slippage, though, on a program you develop yourself because his slippage is likely adversely affected by huge amounts of institutional money trading his signals.

 

[marketsurfer]

Quote from T35:

As a learner of option trading, I'm reading Lawrance McMillan's several books on options (On options, Options as a strategic-investment) and pretty much enjoy learning from these books.

However, as I checked McMillan's website with curiosity, I found the track record of his option trading not very appealing at all. (http://www.optionstrategist.com/sites/default/files/tostrackrcrd2012.pdf). His speculative option trading is awfully bad (-199% in 2012) and the overall performance as advertised to the subscribed is only 15.6% annually. Considering the big risk, this profitability doesn't look so good.

This record pretty much shaken my desire of learning to trade options, if a guru like him is performance as this, how good can a new trader be?

Of course if one only view options as hedging vehicles, his book have taught a lot. But as a stand-alone trading vehicle, is option really worth considering?

Welcome to the real world.

 

[mokwit]

"options are a complete waste of money"

Major Lawrence L. B. Angas 1936.

 

[cmb]

Sang lucci is doing alright with options