Options trading is super cheap now, you can buy vertical spreads for free[0] on Robinhood, where 10 .20 verticals would’ve cost 200 plus (20*.65 + 4.95) or 217

Options trading is super cheap now, you can buy vertical spreads for free[0] on Robinhood, where 10 .20 verticals would’ve cost 200 plus (20*.65 + 4.95) or 217.95 (plus whatever the spread costs, usually .02 on SPY) or almost $220 just to open the position, and the same amount to close. You’re looking at 10% transaction cost just to open. Robinhood just lets you jam your entire $200 into option premiums netting you better returns (or smaller losses). Robinhood has made speculating on cheap spreads and weekly options a lot cheaper. It doesn’t really make much of a difference to people trading ITM options or hedging, but speculation is much cheaper now. Edit: With SPCE, PLUG and perhaps TSLA, it was retail long call option buying that forced the MMs to buy the underlying to hedge, forcing the price further upwards which made more people buy calls which lead to MMs buying more shares to hedge. Eventually the buying stops, as we’ve seen with TSLA and SPCE. At one point during TSLAs parabolic rise, 1.8 TSLA calls were trading for every 1 SPY call. SPY usually has the highest option volume, since it’s the most liquid ETF. Option markets have a lot of influence over the price of the underlying. [0] Meaning your order flow is sold to market makers, and you might get a slightly worse fill