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Courses >
Personal Finance & Wealth Building > Introduction to Stock Options
 Learn how to evaluate, buy, sell, and profit with investment tools that were once thought to be only for the pros. This course will teach you how to protect your portfolio and profit in a down market, an up market, or even a flat market. Learn to leverage your investment dollars for potential profits that surpass those possible with stocks.
This course includes a knowledgeable and caring instructor who will guide you through your lessons, facilitate discussions, and answer your questions. The instructor for this course will be Mark Quinn.
 Mark Quinn has actively traded options for almost 20 years. He is a disciple of option guru Lawrence McMillan, and has participated in numerous stock option seminars sponsored by the Chicago Board of Options Exchange and Options Industry Council. Years of study and experience have given Mark a keen understanding of stock options. Mr. Quinn has conducted training classes from Tokyo to the San Francisco bay area. He holds an MS degree in Distance Teaching and Learning from California State University.
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Requirements:
Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader).
Syllabus:
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
In our first lesson, we'll go over what options are, where they come from, and why it's worth your time and effort to learn about them. After we dissect the formal definition of an option, we'll then go over some easy-to-understand examples to drive home each element of that definition.
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| Friday - Lesson 02 |
Every investment specialty has its very own jargon and particular way of handling business. Options are no exception. In this lesson, we'll discuss many of the option peculiarities. Did you know that each option has its own unique symbol? We'll clear up any mystery about how those option symbols are constructed. When you finish this lesson, you'll be able to identify any option just by looking at its symbol.
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| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
One of the most important things to consider before you buy anything is its price. Option pricing is, therefore, very important, and in this lesson, we'll explore where to find those prices, what they look like, and how to interpret each element you'll find in an option pricing chart. When you finish this lesson, you'll be well on your way to being what I call a good Option Detective.
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| Friday - Lesson 04 |
It's one thing to know an option's price, but quite another to know if that price is reasonable and fair. In this lesson, we'll take a look under the hood of option pricing so you understand what contributes to option value. Knowing what makes one option more expensive than another is all part of understanding the essentials of option pricing. When you finish this lesson, you'll know there are over-priced and under-priced options, and you'll know which are which before you trade.
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| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
In today's lesson, we'll go over an easy graphing system that will illustrate what kind of profit or loss may be possible when you trade any option. The beauty of these graphs is how they bring clarity to even a very complex option strategy. With this knowledge, you'll enter any option trade fully aware of potential risk and reward. You'll also know precisely where your break-even point is, and this all contributes to a fully informed trading experience.
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| Friday - Lesson 06 |
Today we'll begin by examining the differences between stocks and options, and then we'll focus on the advantages of options. Then we'll take an in-depth look at the first basic option strategy—the long call. When you finish this lesson, you'll know the best way to profit when you think a stock price is headed up. Further, you'll understand which option to buy depending on how bullish you are about that price movement.
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| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
In this lesson, we'll go over where options come from and how you can, if you want, create them yourself by selling call options. This is called naked call writing, and it's one way you can use options to profit when you think a stock price is going to hold steady or drop. You'll learn the risk inherent in this strategy and what it means to be assigned.
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| Friday - Lesson 08 |
We'll spotlight covered calls in this lesson. This strategy involves selling call options on stock you already own. This is a very popular way for making a profit even when your stock's price isn't going up. You'll learn the how, when, and whys of this essentially conservative strategy in one easy lesson.
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| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
Certain options profit when a stock drops, and in today's lesson, you'll get to know the put option, a powerful type of option employed for this purpose. In many ways, the put option is the mirror image of the call option. The versatility of the put option impresses a great many students.
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| Friday - Lesson 10 |
Few investors know the benefits, much less the in and outs, of selling put options, but in today's lesson, you'll get to know both. Known as writing naked puts, you can also utilize this strategy as a way to purchase stock for less. There's something to be said for collecting your profit up front and putting that money to use immediately, too.
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| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
We'll reinforce the beauty of options in this lesson by introducing three combination strategies—the bull spread, the bear spread, and the long straddle. This taste of more advanced option strategies may whet your appetite for other more esoteric combinations, and there are plenty. After you finish this lesson, you'll have a good sense of what you can achieve using option combo strategies for profitable trades.
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| Friday - Lesson 12 |
In our final lesson, we'll pull everything you've learned together into one cohesive overview. It's helpful to review the knowledge-building process you completed and to see how each building block supported the next. In this lesson, you'll also get to know the market sentiment and how it influences which option strategy is appropriate and when. Finally, we'll review the concept of risk and go over how it's an integral consideration when you're thinking about any option investment strategy.
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To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Student Reviews:
"Being a conservative investor, stock options are one of several types of investments that over the years I have neglected. Still my curiosity for at least knowing what stock options are and their use by investors did arouse my interest. I found Mr. Quinn’s Introduction to Stock Options to be a very informative and well-organized course. As important, Mr. Quinn also presented various strategies employing stock options that displayed their flexibility to be tailored to suit investors of every risk level tolerance. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and found it most interesting. I feel most fortunate to have taken this course and look forward to further study on my own with the background Introduction to Stock Options provided."
"First, I had no knowledge about stock options before taking this course but now I feel comfortable applying the skills and knowledge I've learned. Thank you so much, Mark. Keep up the good job."
"I enjoyed this class immensely, simply because you made it as easy as possible to understand this whole new world of stock options. I enrolled in this course because I wanted to learn more about investing my stock shares, and found another avenue altogether. Thank you very much, Mark. I thoroughly enjoyed the course."
"Mark has a knack for tackling the complex and often daunting subject matter and breaking it down into its simplest parts. I had taken stabs at learning about options trading in the past, only to quickly retreat, feeling overwhelmed and dumb. Because of Mark, I was able to understand for the first time what was going on. He is a wealth of knowledge and experience, responds promptly and directly to questions, is never condescending, is easily approachable, and is eager for our success. I would definitely sign up for any other investment class he might teach in the future."
"Mark has been a great instructor! His real life experiences gave credibility to the whole course. His examples, his warnings, and his lists of reference materials truly helped build my interest and confidence in options trading. I am excited, as he predicted, to be involved in this aspect of investing."
"This course has been a tremendous introduction for beginners like me. It's provided real value. You've done a great job of introducing and explaining a complex topic. Thanks a lot for the help!"
"This course was excellent. It met my needs and allowed me to accomplish my goals for taking the course. Mark's expertise and enthusiasm for the topic were very motivating. Thanks for a wonderful intro to stock options."
"This is a course I should have taken a long time ago. All I can say is that it is perfect. I hope you offer an advanced class in the future."
To purchase this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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