I’ve been investing for a long time, and more recently I’ve had some great success in the world of stock options. While they’re risky, they can also be an extremely rewarding means of making money if they’re handled right.

I would advise you to study up on options as much as you can before you begin trading them. Too many people learn the hard way by losing the entire amount of their investment. Don’t let that be you. Here are a few words to the wise that I hope you’ll take seriously.

You may or may not be aware of the fact that options lose value over time. This is known as time decay, and it basically means that the longer it is until an options contract expires, the higher of a price it will sell at relative to nearer contracts at the same strike price.

As you get closer to expiration, that time premium gradually shrinks over the weeks and month. Therefore, buying and holding is never really a wise options strategy. You should generally look to make some short term trades whenever you’re buying and selling options.

You’ll also want to hedge your bets whenever trading options. Try buying some puts to the extreme if you’ve bought calls, and vice versa if you’ve bought puts. This requires discipline, but it’s standard practice amongst the most experienced and successful traders.

A patient and wise investor will generally do this for the protection and the piece of mind.

Sure, you might not make as much money as you otherwise would have, but investing something like 5 or 10% in the opposite outcome can ensure that you lose much less than all of your investment should your option never hit its strike price.

Follow this advice and you’ll be in a much better position than most.

For more writing by this author, read his blog about cheap worldwide travel insurance and single trip holiday insurance ideas policies.