Forex options trading is an investment tool that provides investors with flexibility establishing forex trading and hedging strategies.

The foreign exchange (FX or Forex) market is the largest, most liquid market in the world working round the clock (due to the overlapping of different time zones), 5 days a week, including all of the currencies in the world and having average traded value of around U.S. $1,900 bln per day.

Forex options trading started as an over-the-counter (OTC) hedging instrument for large financial institutions. Today, thanks to the vast variety of real-time financial data on the Internet and widely available programs, forex options trading is open for every individual, firm and/or country whether speculating or hedging in foreign currency markets.

The buyer in the forex options trading market is called the holder of a foreign currency option. The only primary financial obligation of the holder in forex options trading is to pay the premium to the seller in advance when purchasing the foreign currency option. Once it is done, no other obligations exist for the forex option buyer. In case forex option is exercised, the holder is said to be assigned a spot position. However, most options in forex options trading are not exercised by the buyer, but are offset in the market before the expiration date. If by that time the strike price is out-of-the-money, forex option expires worthless.

The seller in forex options trading is also called the granter, or writer, as in Stock Options Trading. The seller must have the funds in her account that would cover the initial margin requirement and put some extra money there should the market move in unfavourable direction. Much like the buyer, the forex seller can either buy back the contract in forex options trading before it expires, or hold it until expiration.
One of the most important factors influencing price formation in forex options trading is volatility. An increase in volatility results in growth of both call and put options prices.

Standard put and call option contracts are called plain vanilla forex options and customized forex options are known as exotic ones. The latter are usually not very liquid.

Thus, forex options trading is yet another challenging way to make profit.

If you still have questions about options trading that are left without answer, you may find what you're looking for in the articles Options Trading Tools and Successful Options Trading.

OPTIONS SYSTEMS
Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Please read Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options.