Alphasynctrader

About Options Trading

Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that natural gas was the second most widely fuel in the U.S., accounting for 32% of the energy consumption in 2021..

While petroleum was still the largest, it was used mostly for transportation purposes, as natural gas was the dominant fuel of choice in residential, industrial, and commercial use cases. Within the electricity sector, natural gas also led the pack and accounted for 32% of the total usage, and overall, natural gas accounted for 36% of the U.S. primary energy production. Finally, U.S. natural gas production also outstripped usage in 2021

The top-performing oil and gas stocks in the past year include TORM PLC, Teekay Tankers, and Scorpio Tankers. Despite oil prices dropping significantly from their peaks recorded nearly a year ago, these companies have seen their shares rise by well over 100% in the past year, handily beating the 9% drop in the Russell 1000 Index.

Oil and gas stocks as a group, measured by the benchmark Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE), have climbed by 10% in the past year, outperforming the broader market. However, declining oil and gas prices in the second half of 2022 and into 2023 could pressure margins and revenues in the sector.

Advantages of Oil and Gas Stocks

Pros

Inflation/Interest Rates Hedge: Historically, rising inflation has been correlated with higher oil prices, offering investors a potential portfolio hedge by investing in oil and gas stocks. Typically, the Federal Reserve raises interest rates to tackle inflation, aiming to lower consumer demand. According to Bob Iaccino, co-founder of Path Trading Partners, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude contracts over the past six rate-tightening cycles has risen by an average of 16.06% six months after each rate hike.

Tax Advantages: Investing in oil and gas stocks provides investors and producers with a range of unique tax benefits. Some key advantages include the favorable way active and passive income is treated and the deduction of certain drilling and lease costs. For instance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax code considers earnings from oil and gas royalties as passive income while categorizing net losses as active income. This may enable some investors to offset their production revenue losses from other forms of income, such as capital gains.

Cons

Swing trade positions are subject to overnight and weekend market risk.

Abrupt market reversals can result in substantial losses.

Swing traders often miss longer-term trends in favor of short-term market moves.

The risks of futures trading: margin and leverage

There are basically two ways in which you can sell options contracts. First, if you have previously bought contracts and wish to realize your profits, or cut your losses, then you would sell them by placing a sell to close order. The order is named as such because you are closing your position by selling options contracts.

You would usually use that order if the options you owned had gone up in value and you wanted to take your profits at that point, or if the options you owned had fallen in value and you wanted to exit your position before incurring any other losses.

The other way you can sell options is by opening a short position and short selling them. This is also known as writing options, because the process actually involves you writing new contracts to be sold in the market. When you do this you are taking on the obligation in the contract i.e. if the holder chooses to exercise their option then you would have to sell them the underlying security at the strike price (if a call option) or buy the underlying security from them at the strike price (if a put option).

Writing options is done by using the sell to open order, and you would receive a payment at the time of placing such an order. This is generally riskier than trading through buying and then selling, but there are profits to be made if you know what you are doing. You would usually place such an order if you believed the relevant underlying security would not move in such a way that the holder would be able to exercise their option for a profit.