Monday, 21 September 2009

Forex Option Trading to Diversify Your Forex Trading

By Steve Maenshel

Forex option trading is a hedging instrument, used not only by big financial institutions, but also by many individual Forex traders. Forex option trading is a great tool for implementing both, hedging and speculating strategies. Forex options are among the most liquid options in the world. The buyer in this case becomes a holder of a foreign currency option. The seller becomes the writer, or the granter.

Forex options grant the owner the right (not obligation) to exchange a particular amount of one currency into another currency on a particular date and at a pre-agreed rate. Forex option trading is known for incurring only a limited liability. The buyer only has one obligation - to pay a premium to the seller prior to the purchasing of the foreign currency option. The seller can either buy the contract back before it expires, or to hold the contract until its expiration.

Forex option trading requires buying at a fixed price, in a fixed amount as well as at a fixed expiration date. All of this unties you from the dangerous market fluctuations.

Exercising of the Forex options does not always occur with Forex option trading. In fact, it does not occur more often than it does. The options are usually offset until they expire. Every time the option does get exercised, the option holder is said to be assigned a spot position. In case the final strike price is below the initial purchase price, the option expires and becomes worthless.

As mentioned above, you only pay a fixed price for the transaction when you buy a Forex option. Forex option trading will safeguard you against losing more than you have invested into the option. In the event of the final strike price on the market being higher than the purchase amount, you will instantly profit. In the event of the final strike price on the market is lower than the purchase price, you will lose. However, you will never lose more money due to this fixed price, in case your transaction becomes worthless.

Forex option trading is applied strictly at the international exchanges, since it is a hedging instrument. While being probably riskier than regular Forex trading due to its uniqueness, Forex option trading is also potentially much more profitable.

There are two types of options in Forex option trading- call options and put options. Call options give the right to buy currency, and put options give the right to sell currency. Both these options generally change in respond to the change in volatility, i.e. if the volatility falls, the prices of both options also fall. There are common and customized Forex options, respectively called "plain vanilla" and exotic.

Are there any ways to make your Forex option trading less risky? Yes, for that try to follow the below general guidelines:

1. Forex option trading should only involve a very small part of your capital.

2. Use only the proven signals with your Forex option trading.

3. Try your Forex option trading first on a demo account, in order to gain a valuable practical experience without risking any money.

Forex option trading is a tricky trading tool. However, if you want to diversify your knowledge of the financial markets, you may also consider giving Forex option trading a try.

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