How does the individual investor/trader learn about options?Many traditional brokers make no effort to help clients.Most financial columnists (with few exceptions) who write about the stock market, avoid options like the plague.Financial planners either don’t understand how options work, or choose not to tell their clients about options.
Some discount brokers make a real effort to attract investors who useoptions and advertise to attract option traders: For example, TD Ameritrade, E*Trade, Fidelity and Schwab.
Several excellent brokerage firms specialize in options trading: Thinkorswim, OptionsXpress, TradeKing, to name a few.
There are a bunch of bloggers who are passionate about options and write about various aspects of option trading.They provide good, useful information.But people who find these blogs already know that options exist and are searching for additional information.
I know I must get over it, but so many people suffered large losses in 2008 when stock markets plummeted.One could argue that these unhedged investors reaped the rewards during the good times, and if they do poorly during bad times, then things are simply being equalized.But I wish I could have explained to each and every one of these people that they would be better off today had they adopted conservative strategies that help preserve the value of a stock market portfolio fromthe ravages of extreme market volatility.
The best we can do is to help educate those who are willing to learn and accept the fact that there’s nothing to be done about the majority who depend on advisers and planners – people who provide little useful help.
‘Options education for Individual investors.’That’s my business. That’s the tagline for my website.That’s my objective.
