Forex Option Trading to Diversify Your Forex Trading

By Steve Maenshel

Forex option trading is often used by large financial institutions for their hedging strategy implementation, as well as it is used by a large number of day traders as a speculative instrument. Forex options are a specific type of a trading instrument, which has its upsides and downsides. One of the special features of Forex option trading is that it's extremely liquid. Forex option buyer is called a holder, while Forex option seller is called the granter.

An owner of a Forex option has a right to exchange a specific amount of currency at a specific date and at an agreed rate. Before the buyer purchases the Forex option, the buyer is obligated to pay the seller a premium. Actually, this is the one and only obligation of the buyer. Thus the liability of the buyer is limited. The seller has two possibilities with Forex option trading - either to buy back the foreign currency contract prior to its expiration or to hold it until it expires.

Forex option trading can protect you from unfavorable fluctuations, which could eat up your whole account, since the amount that you may lose is fixed in advance.

Do Forex options always get exercised? As a matter of fact, most of the time the options are not exercised by their purchaser with the Forex option trading; options are often offset until they expire. If the option gets exercised, a spot position is assigned to the option holder. There also is a threat of an option expiring worthless, if at the expiration time the strike price is lower than the purchase price.

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 can only be applied on the international markets, since it's a hedging instrument. Forex option trading is generally considered very risky, but also with higher potential of profits.

Forex trading options are divided into 2 categories - call Forex options and put Forex options. The first type grants you with the right to purchase currency, while the second type grants you with the right to sell it. The most common factor which affects the prices of the Forex options is volatility. When volatility grows, the prices grow. When volatility falls, the prices also fall. There are common options in Forex option trading, which are called "plain vanilla". Also there are customized options, known as "exotic".

In order to shield yourself from potential losses, it is better to follow general safety with Forex option trading:

1. Only place a small portion of your account into option trading.

2. Trade only based on proven signals.

3. Trade on a Forex option trading demo account prior starting to trade live.

Forex option trading is an additional Forex trading strategy. In order to become better diversified, you may wish to learn more about Forex option trading in addition to regular Forex trading. - 23210

About the Author:

About the author: Steve Maenshel can you develop a solid foundation for forex option trading. For more forex trading information, visit his forex resource center.