Especially if you wanted to do a simple covered-call, e.g: * Buy 100 GOOG at $1000. * Sell 1 Nov 16 $1050 Call. (Edit: Then assuming GOOG doesn't go down

Especially if you wanted to do a simple covered-call, e.g: * Buy 100 GOOG at $1000. * Sell 1 Nov 16 $1050 Call. (Edit: Then assuming GOOG doesn't go down significantly it's a profit even if assigned) Normally that would be a relatively low risk position, but you'd need $100,000 in GOOG underlying to cover it, which is a rather large amount for small investors to throw around even with margin accounts. And that's just for ONE option. Edit: Oh, and if you thought $1000 is annoying to trade, check out Berkshire Hathaway: https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:BRK.A https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:BRK.A $175,400 per share.