Guru,
Nobody here will recommend you trade an option without a reasonable understanding. I learned from boooks many year ago. You don't learn until you risk like a $100 and watch the value move for a few weeks. There are countless option basic vids on youtube. You will probably grasp the basics if you spend a few hours. Here is a very basic intro. Watch a few more from other providers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRUspTL0Kiw
Options are based on complicated statistics, but you don't have to have a PHD to trade them in moderation. You do need to understand potential loss or gain. Options are just leverage. You can use them to gamble, you can use them as insurance. (hedge your long portfolio).
I very seldom buy options but I have lately as a hedge. I have executed perhaps 700 options the past 18 months. I was the seller 690 times so you know where I stand. I play options very conservatively and have a very high "win rate". Easily 75%+. I hit a lot of singles and very few home runs. I sell options to folks trying to hit homeruns and occasionally they do. If you decide to invest some time, you'll have to understand the most basic definitions of...
Calls
Puts
Strike Price
Expiration Date
Time value decay and intrinsic value
If you are willing to invest a few hours educating yourself first, step two would probably be to let us help you pick a fairly volatile stock that is oversold, and YOU believe very likely due for a decent upside bounce in the near future, and throw down $100. Nothing like watching real-time gains and losses to understand how options move hour to hour. Some recent examples that seemed obvious to me. WEN under $10, O at $40, most major oil stocks. Maybe even Polaris if it gets hit some more next week, or even something more conservative like T. A stock that seems to have some amount of downside support is usually better.
Pick something I halfway agree with and I will mirror the trade and we'll win or lose together. I'll try to explain what is going on day by day. I'm pretty sure a few others here with options experience will help you learn. In the end you may get lucky, or learn why I strongly prefer to sell options rather than buy them in almost all market conditions. Don't play with index options yet. That's a bad lesson #1. They are expensive and we could be wrong. I'd rather see you drop $100 and try to turn it into $300 on a very basic option you understand. Just go in thinking it's just "tuition". You're smart and I know you won't get reckless because we will lecture you if you even try lol. I learned the hard way when I was a kid.
This conversation is more appropriate for the conservative options thread. If you want to learn you will get help there.
Nobody here will recommend you trade an option without a reasonable understanding. I learned from boooks many year ago. You don't learn until you risk like a $100 and watch the value move for a few weeks. There are countless option basic vids on youtube. You will probably grasp the basics if you spend a few hours. Here is a very basic intro. Watch a few more from other providers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRUspTL0Kiw
Options are based on complicated statistics, but you don't have to have a PHD to trade them in moderation. You do need to understand potential loss or gain. Options are just leverage. You can use them to gamble, you can use them as insurance. (hedge your long portfolio).
I very seldom buy options but I have lately as a hedge. I have executed perhaps 700 options the past 18 months. I was the seller 690 times so you know where I stand. I play options very conservatively and have a very high "win rate". Easily 75%+. I hit a lot of singles and very few home runs. I sell options to folks trying to hit homeruns and occasionally they do. If you decide to invest some time, you'll have to understand the most basic definitions of...
Calls
Puts
Strike Price
Expiration Date
Time value decay and intrinsic value
If you are willing to invest a few hours educating yourself first, step two would probably be to let us help you pick a fairly volatile stock that is oversold, and YOU believe very likely due for a decent upside bounce in the near future, and throw down $100. Nothing like watching real-time gains and losses to understand how options move hour to hour. Some recent examples that seemed obvious to me. WEN under $10, O at $40, most major oil stocks. Maybe even Polaris if it gets hit some more next week, or even something more conservative like T. A stock that seems to have some amount of downside support is usually better.
Pick something I halfway agree with and I will mirror the trade and we'll win or lose together. I'll try to explain what is going on day by day. I'm pretty sure a few others here with options experience will help you learn. In the end you may get lucky, or learn why I strongly prefer to sell options rather than buy them in almost all market conditions. Don't play with index options yet. That's a bad lesson #1. They are expensive and we could be wrong. I'd rather see you drop $100 and try to turn it into $300 on a very basic option you understand. Just go in thinking it's just "tuition". You're smart and I know you won't get reckless because we will lecture you if you even try lol. I learned the hard way when I was a kid.
This conversation is more appropriate for the conservative options thread. If you want to learn you will get help there.