In a futures contract , both participants in the contract are obliged to buy or sell the underlying asset at the specified price on settlement day. As a result, both buyers and sellers of futures contracts face the same amount of risk.

On the other hand, the option contract buyer has the right but not the obligation to buy or sell the underlying asset. Hence the term "option" and this option comes at a price in the form of a premium more specifically, the time value of the premium.

With this "option", the option buyer's risk is limited to the premium paid but his potential profit is unlimited. Sellers of options take on an additional volatility risk in exchange for the premium. However, their potential profit is then capped while their potential losses has no limit.

Hence, this premium can be high if the underlying asset is perceived to be very volatile. Buying straddles is a great way to play earnings. Many a times, stock price gap up or down following the quarterly earnings report but often, the direction of the movement can be unpredictable.

For instance, a sell off can occur even though the earnings report is good if investors had expected great results If you are very bullish on a particular stock for the long term and is looking to purchase the stock but feels that it is slightly overvalued at the moment, then you may want to consider writing put options on the stock as a means to acquire it at a discount Also known as digital options, binary options belong to a special class of exotic options in which the option trader speculate purely on the direction of the underlying within a relatively short period of time Cash dividends issued by stocks have big impact on their option prices.

This is because the underlying stock price is expected to drop by the dividend amount on the ex-dividend date As an alternative to writing covered calls, one can enter a bull call spread for a similar profit potential but with significantly less capital requirement.

In place of holding the underlying stock in the covered call strategy, the alternative Some stocks pay generous dividends every quarter. You qualify for the dividend if you are holding on the shares before the ex-dividend date To achieve higher returns in the stock market, besides doing more homework on the companies you wish to buy, it is often necessary to take on higher risk. A most common way to do that is to buy stocks on margin Day trading options can be a successful, profitable strategy but there are a couple of things you need to know before you use start using options for day trading Learn about the put call ratio, the way it is derived and how it can be used as a contrarian indicator Put-call parity is an important principle in options pricing first identified by Hans Stoll in his paper, The Relation Between Put and Call Prices, in It states that the premium of a call option implies a certain fair price for the corresponding put option having the same strike price and expiration date, and vice versa In options trading, you may notice the use of certain greek alphabets like delta or gamma when describing risks associated with various positions.

They are known as "the greeks" Since the value of stock options depends on the price of the underlying stock, it is useful to calculate the fair value of the stock by using a technique known as discounted cash flow Stocks, futures and binary options trading discussed on this website can be considered High-Risk Trading Operations and their execution can be very risky and may result in significant losses or even in a total loss of all funds on your account.

You should not risk more than you afford to lose.

Difference between options and futures - Option Trading FAQ

Before deciding to trade, you need to ensure that you understand the risks involved taking into account your investment objectives and level of experience.

Information on this website is provided strictly for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as a trading recommendation service.

Futures vs Options - Difference and Comparison | Diffen

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You should never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.