Archive for October 4th, 2009
A Basic Intro to Real Estate Investing
When you think of real estate investing, a number of things may come to mind. You likely leap to real estate investing as real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans, and then you may expand to thinking of short sales, bulk reo investing or virtual real estate investing. You likely also are wondering how these things factor into real estate investors’ roles in the current economy.
There is a great deal to know about real estate investing. Knowing the basics of real estate investing education is a good way to get the most out of every lesson. You will get the most out of anything to do with short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate and just improving real estate investor abilities by knowing some real estate investing basics. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:
1. Real estate investing education always yields positive. Every real estate deal has the potential to create thousands of dollars in potential wealth. Getting the wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Small investments yield big results when you invest in learning and then implement what you learn.
2. Real estate investing success is possible in any economy. Lots of people believe that real estate success is only possible in a booming economy. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. You frequently can get properties at deep discounts. Also, you might find deals that simply could not exist in a booming economy. Real estate investing often is what turns the tide for poor economies. When an economy is less than thriving, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate can prosper. You will have the option of saving yourself and possibly others from serious financial difficulties if you know about these types of deals.
3. You do not need to have a great deal of money if you want to be a successful real estate investor. You can succeed in the real estate investing arena no matter how much money you are working with. Many types of deals enable you to use other people’s money to do them. If you are a good investment private lenders may let you use their money. A good investment will know as much as they can about real estate investing. This will help you show people that you are a good investment if they have the money to help you with real estate investing but they do not know how to use it.
You can generate lots of wealth by real estate investing. You will have the ability to create income in any economy. Using knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you will be able to create success for yourself. You will be helped to succeed as a real estate investor by knowing real estate investing basics.
Risks in Futures Options Trading
When people speak of future option or commodity option trading, they think of the risks involved. There are risks involved when buying and selling options. When buying an option, the risk is how much you paid for the options. There is limited risk involved in buying an option. In selling futures options, there is unlimited risk involved because if the option goes “in the money” you have the potential for unlimited loss.
For example, if the underlying futures market was trading at 3.00 and I sold a 3.50 call option, this option is not yet in the money. It is “out of the money”. If the futures hits 3.50, then the option is “at the money”. Once it goes beyond 3.50, it is in the money. If I sold the commodity option and the futures eventually goes to 5.50, then it has 2.00 worth of “real value” or intrinsic value. So we can lose more than we expected. Some people only buy options for this reason.
When buying futures options though, you are paying premium and this is risk as well. The chance that you will be in the money and recover your premium payment is the risk involved. There is unlimited potential with limited risk. But the disadvantage is that the options usually expire worthless. Leverage is the reason people buy futures options. You can control the underlying futures with a smaller investment and less risk than by buying or selling the futures contract. I am paying a premium to do this and I am also trading time as well. Meaning, I only have until the option expires to be correct, so time is a factor in futures options trading also.
Futures options sellers are trading the fact the an option will not be profitable for the option buyer before a certain time frame. Hopefully the futures option will expire worthless or lose value before the expiration of the option.
I will write about other techniques in another article. There are many ways to trade futures options. You can buy an option or sell an option or you can put on a credit spread where you do both.