T2W Guide to Trading: Options

David, sounds like you need to do a lot of reading before going to much further. Terms such as, market, limit, stop, and stop limit, are general terms in trading referring to types of orders placed for purchase or sale.
Yes the option symbol for stocks at any rate generally contains the underlying symbol with in it

Market order, is an instruction to buy or sell at the best price available in the market at the time it is placed, when you send a market order to your broker you are instructing your broker to go and buy or sell for what ever price is on offer at the time

Limit order is an order to buy at a specific price or better. You instruct your broker to sell your option for say $5.50. Your broker will only accept $5.50 or better, if no-one matches or beats that order your option will not be sold.

Stop & stop limit, a stop is short for stop market, it is an instruction to buy or sell as soon as a particular price level is met, again it is non-specific as to the price that you will pay or receive for sale other than it will likely be close to the stop you have set. For example. You own an option contract and you wish to sell when it reaches a certain price, but you may not be able to monitor the position to sell it yourself when it reaches that level, so you place a stop order $2 above the current price. When your option trades at this price your stop order will convert to a market order, instructing your broker to sell immediately for the best available bid price.
The difference with a stop limit is that not only do you specify that he should sell when prices reach a certain level but you also specify the price he should accept. With a stop limit your broker will only accept the price you specify or better.

Not quite sure what your last question means, you place the trade and your broker sells ith

hi friend...thks 4 ur reply..i still have few questions to ask .... i m doing the virtual trading in optionexpress and notice that once i have placed an order how to sell them??....Secondly, how do i know which symbol represent which company?? how can i get the full list for the company represent the symbol....

tq
ppl in needs

David - I'm not familiar with the Options Express platform, but as it is well regarded I am sure there must be some help screens that will explain how to use the software. I also suspect that there will be a facility to search for a stock within the software. If not, there are numerous sources on the web. e.g. you can find Nasdaq stocks and their symbols at http://www.nasdaqtrader.com/trader/s...ory/symbol.stm . Likewise there are sites that will give a search facility for the NYSE as well.

HTH

I cant access optionsxpress... the site comes up fine but alot of the links are inactive... I assume its down for the holidays or something... I have some time off b/c of the holidays & wanted to use it to test several strategies & possibly paper trade... anyone know what's up with the site

Contact me if you want some suggestions for where to start.

Hi, what is your opinion on recomendation services, Steve sarnoff and the like. Where they pick-um I play-um?

My view is that you should always make your own trading decisions. There are two main reasons for this.

First is you are the one who cares most about your own account. No one else is going to look after your interests as well as you. Plus you are the one who understands what risk level you are happy with and this is critical in establishing a trading approach.

The second reason is this. If you are taking trading direction from someone else, there is no personal investment in the decisons being made. And so when the trades don't work out you will immediately want to abandon the trading system. This makes it very hard to follow trades that are given to you with no understanding on your part.

David
StockMarket Genie Trading System

I lost my life savings (net worth) with ODL securities on an advisory basis in 5 months. I invested £71,500 and was left with just £900. The Brokers name was Frank Freeman and traded options. I was commissioned over £32,400.

The case has now gone to the Ombudsman for arbitration.

If you want to know more email on: louisjordan10@yahoo.co.uk