Some of the most profitable and productive trading is accomplished through selling options for income. You can make money on the way up and on the way down, in any market. By selling options, you control all aspects of your capital, including risk outcomes on particular trades.
But, can you get rich trading options? The answer, unequivocally, is yes, you can get rich trading options.
In general, you can earn anywhere between 1 and 5% (or more) selling weekly put options. It all depends on your trading strategy. How much you earn depends on how volatile the stock market currently is, the strike price, and the expiration date.
The biggest advantage of buying a call option is that it magnifies the gains in a stock's price. For a relatively small upfront cost, you can enjoy a stock's gains above the strike price until the option expires. So if you're buying a call, you usually expect the stock to rise before expiration.
Dan Zanger holds a world record for his trading one-year stock market portfolio appreciation, gaining over 29,000%. In under two years, he turned $10,775 into $18 million.
Day traders get a wide variety of results that largely depend on the amount of capital they can risk, and their skill at managing that money. If you have a trading account of $10,000, a good day might bring in a five percent gain, or $500.
He also profits by selling “naked put options,” a type of derivative. That's right, Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, deals in derivatives.
Trading options for a living is possible if you're willing to put in the effort. Traders can make anywhere from $1,000 per month up to $200,000+ per year. Many traders make more but it all depends on your trading account size.
Here's How to Bet Wisely. Let us end 2021 reflecting on a powerful lesson we learned this year: America is a nation of gamblers, and the options market has become the biggest casino in the country.
However, the odds of the options trade being profitable are very much in your favor, at 75%.
Options Traders in America make an average salary of $121,913 per year or $59 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $196,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $75,000 per year.
Benefits of Options Selling
Options buyers gains and makes money. When the Spot price is at or near the strike price at expiry, the option expires At The Money. The Option seller earns the premium received as his income as the contract expires worthless for the buyer.
Options can be a better choice when you want to limit risk to a certain amount. Options can allow you to earn a stock-like return while investing less money, so they can be a way to limit your risk within certain bounds. Options can be a useful strategy when you're an advanced investor.
An option seller may be short on a contract and then experience a rise in demand for contracts, which, in turn, inflates the price of the premium and may cause a loss, even if the stock hasn't moved.
If the stock price goes up, and trades above the strike price before the expiration date, you can sell the call option and make a profit. Even if the stock doesn't rise above $2,950, the call options can still increase in value substantially if there's a swift bullish move with plenty of time left until expiration.
Options can be less risky for investors because they require less financial commitment than equities, and they can also be less risky due to their relative imperviousness to the potentially catastrophic effects of gap openings. Options are the most dependable form of hedge, and this also makes them safer than stocks.
The most profitable options strategy is to sell out-of-the-money put and call options. This trading strategy enables you to collect large amounts of option premium while also reducing your risk. Traders that implement this strategy can make ~40% annual returns.
Internal Revenue Code section 1256 requires options contracts on futures, commodities, currencies and broad-based equity indices to be taxed at a 60/40 split between the long and short term capital gains rates.
Since each option is for 100 shares, Buffett's 50,000 Coca Cola puts were a bid to buy 5 million Coca Cola shares at his desired $35 strike price. These 50,000 put contracts provided a $1.50 premium for each share which resulted in an instant $7.5 million windfall.
The average size of a recommended trade is about $6,000, and they range from $4,000 to $10,000. Because you have to buy at least 100 shares, or have cash set aside with your broker to buy it in the case of selling puts, you're looking at committing at least $5,000 to any stock that trades for $50 per share and above.
Starting Capital of 100k – 250k
Average Day Trader Salary = 20% annual return. This breaks down to 20k to 50k for an annual salary. Above Average Day Trader Salary = 50% annual return. This breaks down to 50k to 125k.
Some financial experts posture that day trading is more akin to gambling than it is to investing. While investing looks at putting money into the stock market with a long-term strategy, day trading looks at intraday profits that can be made from rapid price changes, both large and small.
Unless day traders do something outside of day trading–such as investing some of the proceeds (fewer market ceilings with investing) or starting a business–they are unlikely to make the millions a year they are dreaming of. For most day traders making $500 to $3,000 is a good day….
Myth #2: Options are difficult to understand
Options by themselves are not difficult to understand. Basically, you have the right to buy or sell an underlying stock at a designated price. Even better, there are only two options: a call and a put, and you can either buy or sell.
Trading stock options could produce much higher rates of return compared to trading stocks, mutual funds or other securities. The trade-off, of course, is that you run a greater risk of losing money, too. You want to generate income.