Library

Take a look at our extensive collection of articles and content designed to help you understand
the different concepts within trading, investing, retirement planning, and more.

Options

Learn the basics of options, explore strategies for trading them, and see how they may fit into a portfolio.


Special Event

Options Summit

Check out the Options Summit, a series of webinars to help you expand your options know-how and trade more confidently. Go in-depth on options basics, multi-leg strategies, Power E*TRADE tools, and much more.


On Demand

Options Boot Camp 

Learn about options! E*TRADE's Options Boot Camp is a 6-webinar online event where you'll learn how options work and how they can help you approach different market environments.


On Demand

Options Forum

Check out the Options Forum webinars, a series of six sessions where you'll learn more complex options concepts such as spread strategies, using the "Greeks," and more.

Watch the video to learn the four main reasons investors use options strategies in their portfolios: flexibility, leverage, hedging, and income generation.

For many investors and traders, options can seem mysterious—but also intriguing. If you want to start trading options, the first step is to clear up some of that mystery.

In Part 1, we covered the basics of call and put options. When you buy these options, they give you the right to buy or sell a stock or other type of investment.

All options have an expiration date. It is part of the creation and listing of all new series of calls and puts on the various underlying stocks, ETFs, indexes and futures on which options are made available to buy and sell. The expiration date is the end of the contract – the last day the owner of the option has the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at the strike price.

With all options strategies that contain a short option position, an investor or trader needs to keep in mind the consequences of having that option assigned, either at expiration or early (i.e. prior to expiration). Remember that, in principle, a short position can be assigned to you at any time. In this article, we’ll run through the results and possible responses for a variety of short positions.

Take a look at three common mistakes options traders make: setting unrealistic price expectations, buying too little time, and buying more options than are appropriate for a given objective.

Options are powerful tools that can be used by investors in different ways, and there is a relatively simple options strategy that can benefit buy-and-hold stock investors.

There are certain options strategies that you might be able to use to help protect your stock positions against negative moves in the market. Read this article to learn more.

Learn how to use stop orders and put options to potentially protect your stock position against a drop in the stock market.

If you’re like many investors, you might use a limit order to sell the stock at a higher price, and then wait to see if you get a fill. But there’s another way you may want to consider.

You might consider using options to collect money today for being willing to assume the obligation of buying stock if the stock moves to the lower price that you choose.

While all options trading involves a level of risk, certain strategies have gained a reputation as being riskier than others. Read on to learn more.

An understanding of “the Greeks” can be useful to any options trader. In a nutshell, options Greeks are statistical values that measure different types of risk, such as time, volatility, and price movement. Though you don’t necessarily need to use the Greeks in order to trade options, they can be very helpful in measuring and understanding certain risks.

In an options trade, a well-thought-out plan can make all the difference, and a key part of that plan to consider should be your exit strategy.

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