anyone here trade stock options?

Question

can anyone tell me what is the requirement for trading naked call and puts, covered call, and simply call and put

Answer 1

Most brokers have several levels of option buying for investors. To start, the easiest level is for cover calls. This is the lowest risk.

Next is buying puts and calls. The most at risk here is your premium.

The highest risk level is selling naked puts and calls. Your broker will want to see that you have had enough experience, since there is unlimited risk here.
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Answer 2

Many brokers have lower requirements than that. Trading naked options requires credit with the brokerage service. I would stick with covered calls. Options are very difficult to trade consistently. There is no limit to the money you could lose on naked options.

Answer 3

It depends on your broker, but most of them want a minimum of $10K or more and lots of trading experience.

for covered calls, and straight calls/puts, the requirement is much lower. TOS or OXPS have no minimum, whereas Fidelity (which sucks) has a $5000 minimum for covered call type positions (vertical spreads, etc).

Just check w/ your broker.

Barron's has a great article on brokerages that they publish each year. (Latest one was in March 6, 2006 though the 2007 article “just” came out). Kiplinger does one too.

Here’s the link to the 2006 Barron’s article.
http://webreprints.djreprints.com/1550280182488.html

Here’s the link to the new Barron’s 2007 – Best online Brokers 3/5/07
http://online.barrons.com/public/article/SB117288684364425609-wsYkdd74F9ukYSQgQJifDpHYwsY_20070402.html?mod=mktw

Here’s the link to the Kiplinger’s July 2006 article which isn’t bad either.
http://www.kiplinger.com/magazine/archives/2006/07/brokers.html

Hope that helps!

P.S. I just found a link to a review of reviews as well! Here it is:
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/internet/online-brokers/reviews.html