I don't do options, so somebody please correct if wrong. "Rolling" (at the same strike, let's say) is nothing more than maintaining your play into a different contract month after your current one has expired. So when you're rolling your "Sep APPL 140 CALL" from September to December, what you're really doing is closing your Sep and initiating a new Dec position... So, you're not really "rolling" your current Sep option, just rolling your time into the future with a new option position (Dec)....that right?
Hi Gnome, You are basically right... only thing is I usually don't leg into the new position like that suggests. Usually a roll is done as a spread order. Peace and gtty, Lar
Usually, when someone asks an options related question on here they are met with the answer: If you have to ask that you should not be trading options! Stop trading now!! So the rule is, once you begin trading options you must know EVERYTHING.
I'm sorry but I disagree. One doesn't have to know everything, as a matter of fact it's impossible to know everything about options. However, one does have to know everything that is IMPORTANT in regards to one's option trading strategies if one wants to be consistently profitable. If all you want to do is 'married puts' then you don't need to know quite as much as someone doing complex spreads. When I first started trading all I knew was some option basics and how to control my risk and I started with very small positions. At the same time I continued my option studies and found that the combination of small live trades and concurrent study accelerated my understanding of how options work. Did I make a lot of mistakes? Of course. Did I blow up my account? No, because my risks were tiny but my learning was big. That was a long time ago. However, I'm still learning and that's why most of us, I assume, are still participating on fine boards like this. db
I agree that more often than not these kind of responses do arise. However, in my opinion, they are made with the best interest of the person asking the question in mind, cause if the person is trading options and doesn't know the answer to the particular question then he/she doesn't understand the risks and, hence, he/she can end up with unnecessary losses.