Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Futures Vs Options

Rohit asked: 

I have a doubt regarding profitability of derivative market. Is Nifty Futures trading or Nifty Options trading more profitable? What are the advantages and disadvantages of both the segment? 

I know many intraday traders sticking to options and position traders trading futures. Are position traders avoiding options because of the time decay factor in options?

Suppose If we capture a 50 points up move in Nifty in a day, trading futures or options will give us more profit? Also, if we have to hold our position for 2 weeks to get this 50 points up move in Nifty, will futures or options gives us more profit? 

In case of down market, is shorting in futures require more margin money and expensive when compared to buying Put options? 

I have a trading capital of 2 lakhs rupees, would you suggest me to trade options or futures? If I have a strategy to swing trade in Nifty(1 to 5 days), does trading in futures or options is better? I have trading account with zerodha. 

I know you are a busy person. Kindly find time to clear my doubts. You may find these doubts silly. But I am new to derivative market. Expecting your reply.

Thanks and Regards,
Rohit

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My Reply in the sequence of the questions:

1) There is nothing like which one is more profitable, Options are more volatile because % change is big.
 Options tend to be more volatile near expiry. At the beginning of the series , 20 points of nifty movement may give move of 4 point of premium in next out of the money option, but as the expiry comes near 20 points of nifty movement can lead to same amount of movement in same option value. So If you are able to time options well, then % wise it can give 200 to 500 % returns also in a same day. But at the same time its very easy to see the premium going down by 60-80% in a same day. So everything comes with a cost. You just can not get more profitability without increasing the risk.

2) You only answered to your second question. Yes, I also avoid options in positional trading.

3)Capturing 50 points of move in a day, option can give you more money in % terms. And it also depends how far are we from expiry.

4) Future is always expansive to trade because it needs more margin, while buying options is always tempting and cheap as it needs no margin. All you have to pay is the premium. In 2 lakh you can buy 80 lots of options with premium of 50 rs. But you can not buy or sell more than 8 lots of futures with 2 Lakh as we need approximately 25K per lot as margin requirement.

5) I will strongly recommend you to trade only futures and do not try options. Because Greed and Fear is very difficult to handle in options. And secondly Time factor is always against option buyers, So do not try options at your early stage of trading.


Happy Trading
Pawan

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Ride Big Profit And Avoid Big Loss

There can be five kind of Outcome of our Trades:

1) Breaking Even ( -10 to +10 nifty points)
2) Small Profits (like + 10 to +50 nifty points)
3) Small Loss (like  -10 to -50 nifty points)
4) Big Profits ( like +100 to +300 points)
5) Big Loss ( -100 to -300 points)

Now First three types of possibilities -> Breaking even trades , small profit trades and small Loss trades will neutralize each other and keep us at break even to little negative due to transaction costs.(Range Bound Markets)

And now we are left with last two outcomes which are Big Profitable trades and Big Loss trades, And if somehow we can avoid the big loss trades(Trading against the trend in Trending Markets), we are just left with Big Profitable trades(Riding Trending Markets) which will make us a big winner in the long term.

Think about it.

Happy Trading
Pawan