Most people may often heard of "trading shares" that is facilitated in the stock market or stock exchange but only few may know that aside from this, there is another form of trade that is being performed in the market. This trade is called "trading options".

Though it is a recognized form of trade in the various stock exchanges, trading options is greatly more complicated than that of trading of shares. Unlike in trading of shares, in which a buyer can be provided with a share of ownership in the company, trading options solely gives one the right to buy and sell at specific time and date.

Options are financial instruments that pass on the right, but not the obligation, to engage in a future transaction on some underlying security, or in a futures contract. (wikipedia.com). so if you are buy a share option, you can get the right to buy or even sell the original share at a fixed price at a specific time without any obligation.

There are three types of options namely Exchange traded option, Over-the-counter option and Employee stock option.

Exchange-traded options form an important class of options which have standardized contract features and trade on public exchanges, facilitating trading among independent parties. Over-the-counter options, on the other hand, are traded between private parties, often are well-capitalized institutions. Such institutions have negotiated separate trading and clearing arrangements with each other. Another type of options is Employee stock options. This is considered one f the important options particularly in the United States. This type of option is awarded by a company to their employees as a form of incentive compensation.

There are two known strategies that are normally used in trading options such as straddle and covered call. But between these two strategies, straddle is more popular.

Straddle is used when a trader assumes that the share price will move significantly; however, he is not quite sure where it is going to move. Covered call, on the other hand, is a strategy used, in which a trader buys a stock and sell a call. If the share price increases reaching a point beyond the exercise price, the call will then be exercised. However, if the share price drops, the trader will lose his money on his stock position.

Trading Options have several advantages over trading shares. One of the advantages of trading options is that it can generate money even in a static or declining market. Trading Options could also allow you to trade with higher amounts of leverage. Moreover, it can use more complicated strategies in order to secure your money, while generating more and it can be used as"insurance policy" to hedge a position.

However, though trading options provide several advantages, still there are some disadvantages. Trading options is not good for a long-term trading; it has a limited life. In trading options, shares may move to the direction, which you have predicted, but still that does not generate money and for you to make money, someone has to lose the same amount you have made.

Learning this first before using is an imperative, especially for the beginners. This trade requires a lot of patience. So if you want to make sure that you can have that patience, then you must have a long learning curve. As a matter of fact, there are a number of books and websites, in which you can seek for information about trading options.