The "daily Call" From Option Alpha: Options Trading | Stock Options | Stock Trading | Trading Online

Hey everyone. This is Kirk here again from Option Alpha and welcome back to the daily call. Today, we’re going to answer the question, “Do you need to own 100 shares of stock before trading options?” The answer to this is absolutely and 100% no. You do not need to own shares of stock whether 100 or one share of stock. It doesn't matter. You do not need to own shares of stock before you can trade options. Now, what most people think about when they start transitioning between stock trading into options trading is they think about a covered call which a covered call does require that you own 100 shares per one call option that you sell. But in many respects, what you can do is you can trade options without owning the underlying stock or shares. Now, this is a really cool feature of options trading in my opinion because it reduces this high capital threshold to be able to get into different positions and different ticker symbols and it also allows you to more appropriately manage your risk and adjust your positi