Options offer great flexibility with reduced risks and significant scope to ride the bullish and bearish markets. They allow traders to buy rights to sell and buy underlying assets in securities instead of buying the stock. The cost-effective investment nature is certainly an additional perk. There are multiple strategies to implement and benefit from when trading in options.

Options trading presents an array of advantages, but some mistakes can lead to unsuccessful trading decisions. In this article, we shall discuss the common mistakes and pitfalls that can occur in options trading to help you make informed decisions and avoid losses.

10 Mistakes to Avoid in Options Trading

Consider this list of common mistakes a part of your market research. Knowing these mistakes will prevent you from repeating them.

Not Researching the Markets Properly

The market is massive, with multiple factors and aspects influencing the trends and prices, contributing to volatility. Jumping into the market without doing proper research can lead to poor trading decisions and, consequently, losses. Without researching the RBI policies, corporate reports, market trends impacting stock prices, and so on, traders cannot estimate and choose options and their market positions correctly.

Not Having a Trading Plan

Online tips, advice, gut feelings - many factors can be influential in trading decisions. While that is fine, relying only on distracted factors and elements and not drafting a structured trading plan is a sizeable mistake. A decent trading plan should have specified entry and exit points, expected profit margins, and tolerable risk levels. In the absence of a clearly defined strategy, traders may end up overtrading, holding losing positions, and closing winning trades prematurely.

Misallocation of Capital

Poor capital allocation may result in excessive risk or a lack of opportunity. Traders may put a huge chunk of their capital on one trade or high-risk instrument with the hope of making quick money. Options trading is all about striking a balance between reward and risk. Placing too much capital in one position may result in tremendous losses if the trade does not go as desired. In contrast, dividing capital over too many trades without a particular strategy can strike down potential profits. A prudent capital allocation plan guarantees improved risk management and stable growth.

Not Diversifying Your Portfolio

In an ideal trading strategy, if one trade doesn’t perform as planned, the trader should be able to balance the loss with other trades. A portfolio that is not well diversified in terms of assets, sectors, and strategies has more risk than others. Obviously, if the one sector a trader trades in blooms, the profit will be substantial. However, if it goes the other way and the particular sector does not do well, the loss margin will also be relatively high. Portfolio diversification is a popular investment strategy for the right reasons. It helps correctly balance risk and reward.

Focusing on Illiquid Options

Liquidity is important in investment. It allows you to sell the shares whenever the market is open. For options trading, the concept is a bit more complex. The bid-ask spread plays a significant role here. It basically is the difference between the price quoted by the seller and the price the buyer is willing to pay. Options with a wide bid-ask spread are considered illiquid. It indicates a huge difference between the two prices and naturally leads to a difficult sell.

Not Understanding Volatility

Implied volatility evaluates whether an option is pricey or not by approximating the anticipated trading range for the stock. Elevated implied volatility tends to represent an unfavourable market situation with higher option premiums due to fear. Low implied volatility, on the other hand, generally represents a favourable market condition with lower- cost options. The comparison of historical and current volatility is crucial. Traders must factor volatility into their trading plan to determine whether to sell or purchase a contract and gain from market conditions.

Ignoring the Odds and Probabilities

Some traders believe that cheap options reduce losses by leveraging capital. However, the strategy can fail if traders overlook odds and probabilities. Depending only on cheap options without factoring in statistical data can result in huge losses. Cheap options are low-priced because they reflect the chance of the underlying stock touching a specific price. Out-of-the- money options, especially, take their value almost entirely from time to expiration. Without explicit knowledge of probability and timing, the trader will be left to find these options expiring as worthless, effectively negating any perceived benefit of their low up-front cost.

Neglecting Risk Management

Options trading has leverage risk that can amplify the loss, directional risk due to traders inaccurately estimating market movements, time sensitivity, and more. Without proper risk management strategies in place, traders will not be able to mitigate said risks, which will then lead to significant losses.

Options Trading Streamlined with Indiabulls Securities

Indiabulls Securities allows you to trade across all sectors via multiple trading mediums. From In-depth stock and market analysis, real-time quotes, and market updates to interactive charts and technical tools, we have everything traders need to make the right trading decisions.

Trade to meet your investment goals and plan a suitable risk management strategy with Indiabulls Securities.