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Sunday, January 17, 2010

A Short Of Currency Options Trading For New Forex Traders

By Eddie Lamb

One of the types of trading you are going to hear about when you first enter Forex is currency options trading. This type of trading is very popular with some traders and there are more than 3 billion options traded each year. However, it is also one of the types of trading that has the highest risk involved. Very few brokers will let traders sell these contracts without a lot of capital for their protection because the risk is so high. So, if you are going to get into options trading, it is important that you learn everything about it before you begin.

Forex trading involves trading currency pairs. It is fast, volatile, and is in constant motion. Options trading is adding an extra layer of activity to this already fast moving market. "Standard" or "vanilla" trading options are the most commonly used. It is fairly straight forward. You have the face amount, an option put/call, an expiration, a strike (this is what the trade will be by the expiration) and an exercise.

The option put/call is the right to buy or sell a currency pair at a given exchange rate at some time in the future (the expiration date). A trader has a right, not an obligation to sell. If the put rate runs out of money, the options expire and are worthless. The expiration dates are usually set at one week, one month, three months, six month, and twelve months.

If the exercise is "European" it means that the option can only be exercised on the last day of its life. When it is exercised, the currency option triggers a SPOT or cash trade done at the strike price and for settlement on the SPOT value date.

An "American" exercise can be sold at any time prior to the expiration date. These are valued differently than the European exercise. They can be priced using binomial option pricing models or using a variety of numerical approximation techniques.

Options trading that have non-standard features are called "Exotic Options." These are very popular with the most popular being the "barrier" or "knock-out" option. These options have a barrier exchange rate (out-strike) and if the option is breached at any time during it's life (before the expiration date), it is killed.

Other types of options trading includes Double Barrier currency option, Binary options, Double Barrier Range Binary options, Average Rate currency options, Quantos Options (for hedgers), and Compound Options (options on options). Now, this is by no means a complete list of all the types of options that are used. There are many hybrids and variable options that are also traded.

The advantages of options trading that is most talked about is their increase in leveraging power which makes them cost efficient, the lower cost for this type of option which theoretically reduced the risk, and the ability to hedge against reversals in exchange rates.

Before jumping into the deep end of this pool, it is very important that you have a clear understanding of how currency options trading functions and what the actual risks are. Researching each of the options and talking to traders who have used these options will allow you to set up realistic expectation of what your gains or losses will be. Learning about options trading will require that you take some classes in advanced Forex trading and have an amount of money available that you are comfortable using for these high risk ventures. - 23212

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