Options greatly expand the universe of possibilities when it comes to investing in markets. You can make money if a stock goes up, if it goes down, and even if

Options greatly expand the universe of possibilities when it comes to investing in markets. You can make money if a stock goes up, if it goes down, and even if it doesn't go anywhere at all. Options can be used to increase leverage and they can also be used to decrease risk. You can use options to change the risk / reward profile in non-linear ways. Meaning you can do things like, I'll sacrifice a little bit of my upside to reduce the risk on the downside (and vice versa). You can also design positions such that if the stock goes up a little bit I make money much easier but if it goes up a lot I don't get as big of a win. One of the best books on the subject I know of is "Option Investing as a Strategic Investment". It is sufficiently technical and yet approachable as well. It goes from introductory basic theory to complex multi-legged strategies. Me personally I don't touch the market at all any more and choose to invest in real estate. I can't speak to the current option trading environment. I used to trade options in the past and didn't see anything significant from it. No catastrophic loses, no big wins. I don't know what the landscape looks like now with more algo type trading.