Common Options Trading Mistakes And How To Avoid Them - Part 2

In the previous article, we saw 3 of the most common mistakes beginner options traders can make and the smarter ways to overcome them. This article is a continuation of the list and we will cover 3 more common mistakes that can be avoided by trading smartly. But do people make mistakes only with strategies? No, it is important to choose the right technologies as well. As one of the top brokers in the share market, we at Zebu offer trading accounts with lowest brokerage, and an online trading platform to help you focus only on executing your strategies efficiently. 4. Not Trying Out New Strategies Out-of-the-money options and in-the-money options are two types of options that many traders say they won't buy or sell. These rules don't make sense until you're in a trade that's going against you. We've all been there. A lot of people break their own rules when they face this situation. You can find several options trading strategies that can be integrated into your own system. The most important point here is that buying a call option is so much different than buying a stock or its futures. But it can be a lucrative career if you are starting out with a smaller capital. The smarter way to trade Be willing to learn new ways to trade options. Remember that options aren't the same thing as stocks. This means that their prices don't move the same or even have the same properties as the stock they're linked to. Time decay always needs to be taken into account when you make plans. Find a new trade that makes sense to you. Options can be a great way to get a lot of leverage on a small amount of money, but they can also quickly lose value if you dig yourself in too far. Be willing to lose a small amount of money if it gives you the chance to avoid a disaster in the long run. 5. Trading illiquid options Liquidity is all about how quickly a trader can buy or sell something without creating a big change in the price. A liquid market is one with ready, active buyers and sellers at all times. Here's another way to look at it: liquidity is the chance that the next trade will be done at the same price as the last one. It's simple: Stock markets are more liquid than option markets because they have more people buying and selling them. Stock traders only trade one stock, but options traders may be able to choose from dozens of options contracts. If you want to trade stocks, you'll only be able to buy one type of TCS stock. Options traders, on the other hand, can choose from 3 different expiration dates and a wide range of strike prices to trade. With these many options, the options market will probably not be as liquid as the stock market. Stock or options traders don't have to worry about having enough of a stock like TCS because it's usually a lot bigger than that. There is more of a problem with small stocks. If the stock is illiquid, the options of the same stock will likely be even more inactive. This is usually going to make the spread between the bid and ask price for the options look a little too big. For example, if the bid-ask spread is Rs 0.20 (bid = Rs 1.80, ask = Rs 2.00), and if you buy the Rs 2.00 contract, that’s a full 10 percent of the price paid to establish the position. It's never a good idea to start your trade with a 10% loss right away, just by choosing an option with a wide bid-ask spread. The smarter way to trade It costs more to do business when you trade options that aren't easy to sell. A simple rule you can follow is to make sure that the associated open interest for the strike price is at least equal to 40 times the number of contracts you want to trade. For example, if you want to trade a 10-lot, you should have at least 400 open orders. Open interest represents the number of outstanding options contracts of a strike price and expiration date that have been bought or sold to open a position. Any opening transactions increase open interest, while closing transactions decrease it. You can trade options that are easy to buy and sell. This will save you money and stress. Plenty of liquid opportunities exist. 6. Waiting Too Long to Buy Back Short Options There is only one piece of advice for those who do not buy back short options and it is as straightforward as it gets: Be willing to buy back short options early. There are a lot of times when traders will wait too long to buy back the options they've sold. There are a million reasons why. For example: You don’t want to pay the commission. You’re betting the contract will expire worthlessly. You’re hoping to make just a little more profit out of the trade. The smarter way to trade Know when to buy back your short options. If your short option becomes OTM and you can buy it back to take the risk off the table profitably, do it. A Rs 100 premium option might go down to Rs 2 at expiry. You wouldn’t sell a Rs 2 option to begin with, because it just wouldn’t be worth it. Similarly, you shouldn’t think it’s worth it to squeeze the last few paisas out of this trade. Here’s a good rule of thumb: If you can keep 80 per cent or more of your initial gain from the sale of the option, you should consider buying it back. As one of the top brokers in the share market, we at Zebu offer trading accounts with lowest brokerage, and an online trading platform to execute your strategies. To know more, please get in touch with us now.