Futures vs. Options - The Most Profitable Market? What is the cheapest to get involved in if you have only a few thousand dollars to use? Should I buy pork futures or options on the belly pork bellies?
Neither. Chances are you will lose most or all of your money.
Why?
Obviously you have no experience trading or other market and both have experience, income and, in some cases, the margin requirements.
In both futures and options you are trading against specialists.You market is just guessing and gambling. Vegas has a better chance if you're going to speculate.
<<Future <Vs Options-plus profitable Market?>>>
Assuming you are bullish on pork bellies, the choice would be the most profitable
(1) buy the call option if the implied volatility is too low
(2) buy the future if the implied volatility is on the right
(3) sell the put option is the implied volatility is too high.
"Who is the cheapest to get involved in if you have only a few thousand dollars to utilize?>>>
Among the three choices that I listed, the purchase of call options would be best because the other two choices you can lose more than your initial investment.
"I buy <Should term pork belly or pork on d'options bellies?>>>
You should not buy either until you understand how they work quite well and have sufficient capital to take some losses without being destroyed.
First learn the trade later.
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You must understand that they are "zero sum game" market. For every dollar a person is on a future or option contract, someone else loses a dollar on the same contract. So if you are perfectly average, and you ignore your trading costs, you can just break even.
This means a savings account at your bank will be more profitable (and much safer) than either futures or options unless you are well above average.
Futures and options are both very profitable if played right. Options you give more weight by using less money, but when you excersize options, you need money to buy / sell or at least have someone give you a big margin.
Again, you have to excersize more options and just sell the products directly to market.
Posted on January 17, 2010.