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If you've been trading stocks for some time and have never tried options, then you may want to give them a go. Stock options are more speculative but offer flexibility, diversification and control to protect your stock portfolio or create more investment income. So, here are some things you should know about options.

An option is a derivative, meaning its price is based on an underlying asset. These underlying assets can either be stocks, Indexes or ETFs. An options trade involves giving someone the “right to buy or sell” a certain stock at a certain price by a specific time. Options help the investor to purchase stock at a lower price and to gain from a stock price’s rise or fall. If you buy an option to purchase securities, then it's called a “call” option. If the option you buy is to sell securities, then it's a “put” option. There is also a put and call option, whereby traders purchase both calls and puts on the same stock, with agreed prices and by an agreed date. Buying an option gives you the right, but not the obligation to purchase the asset at a specific price (called the strike price).

The hardest part of options trading is understanding all the jargon. But once you understand all the technical names, you'll soon find out that basically what you really need to know is which way you think the stock price is going to go in the near future. Once you have an idea what's going to happen, then all you need to do is use the right option trade to profit. For instance, if you expect a stock's price is going to increase, then you would purchase a call option on that stock.

Options are not issued by companies like stocks are. All options that exist are "written" or sold by another trader somewhere. Therefore, you are directly betting against that person if you buy an option.

For Call options, if the price of the underlying asset is below the strike price of the option then it is "out of the money," when the price of the asset crosses above the strike price it is called, "in the money." This too works the opposite way for Put options. The price of the option has the greatest percentage moves when it crosses from out of the money to in the money but out of the money options also have the most risk.

So if you don't want to risk large amounts of capital, but still want to use a smaller amount of money to gain from price variations, options trading can be the answer. There are very few risks and an option buyer cannot lose more than the price of the option, the premium.

There is much more involved with trading options, but these are just some of the most basic concepts to help you get started. The bottom line, is that options trading is something that you should only try once you've spent some time learning about the stock market, and if you can make decisions calmly when the pressure is on. A lot of information must be learnt before an educated trading decision can be arrived at.