Introduction to Options - Complete Course for Beginners

Explore the money pyramid to see currency markets dominate volumes, with bonds and equities following. Recognize that derivatives sit at the top, with options as the king of the hill.

Buy a call option to capture unlimited upside while risking only the premium, with breakeven at the strike price plus the premium paid and max loss limited to the premium.

Explore how strike price fixes the price to exercise options, with calls and puts on Apple, and distinguish intrinsic value (underlying minus strike) from extrinsic value (time value).

Explore how expiration, time decay, and theta erode option premium, and learn to gauge extrinsic value and ideal expiry horizons for profitable trades.

Sell options, taking the casino role to collect premiums as calls and puts expire worthless, while probability favors you with limited profits and unlimited losses.

Learn how selling call options works, including premium, breakeven at strike plus premium, and the risk of infinite loss, illustrated by a 60 call example.

Sell puts to collect the premium and provide insurance, with max profit equal to premium and breakeven at strike minus premium; max loss equals underlying price minus premium.

Learn to sell options safely by targeting out-of-the-money options, keeping the premium, and using a defined range and volatility to assess future moves.

Explore historical, future, and implied volatility and learn how the Black-Scholes model uses five inputs—underlying price, strike, expiration, risk-free rate, and volatility—to price options and reveal implied volatility.

Calculate expected moves using standard deviation and implied volatility to estimate price ranges and set one standard deviation and two standard deviation strikes for options.

Navigate the startup screen by entering your username and password, select live trade or paper money, customize color scheme, font size, and memory usage, then save and log in.

Explore the monitor page to track trade activity, positions, and daily profit or loss, while using the sidebar for watch lists and account info in a paper money account.

Learn to navigate and customize the Thinkorswim chart page for options trading, choosing intraday or daily, candles and price types, and studies like exponential moving averages, macd, and rsi.

Learn to customize your Thinkorswim chart page by turning off unwanted lines, adjusting background and grid, and tailoring time axis and equities, options, futures, and forex tabs for price tracking.

Navigate the trade page to explore Apple’s options chain, view expirations and implied volatility percentile, and assess last price, volume, open interest, and greeks.

Learn to buy naked puts by selecting low iv percentile, 60–90 day expirations, and delta below 70, aiming for favorable break-even, max profit, and limited risk.

Explore vertical debit spreads to lower cost basis and cap upside, by buying a lower strike and selling next higher one; credit spreads cap losses and collect premiums.

Learn to set up debit spreads by buying the in-the-money call and selling the out-of-the-money call, with 35–60 days to expiration, and cascade into multi-leg strategies including put spreads.

explore selling credit spreads to capture premium when volatility is high, using iv percentile and 45-day expirations to exploit theta decay, while balancing risk with put and call verticals.

Learn to set up iron condors by selling upper and lower spreads to collect premium in high implied volatility, manage risk with wings, and target a favorable reward-to-risk.

Learn to set up covered calls by buying a low-cost stock with high implied volatility, and selling near-term calls at the one-standard-deviation move to collect credit while rolling positions.

Learn how calendar spreads involve selling short-term options and buying longer-term options to exploit front-month decay and back-month volatility, with a neutral to bullish setup on Celgene using at-the-money strikes.

Explore the YOLO trade by buying far out of the money options to chase moon shots, weighing the massive gains against the high probability of loss and lottery-like risk.

Explore delta, the rate at which an option price changes with the underlying, with calls, puts, and delta neutral strategies guided by beta weighting.

Gamma measures the rate of delta change as the underlying moves; the gamma curve peaks at the money and flattens with longer expiry, affecting strategies like at-the-money straddles and strangles.

The Greeks recap explains delta, gamma, theta, vega, and rho, and how long and short calls and puts create positive or negative delta and nonlinear payoffs.

Create and follow a structured options trading plan using Ivy rank, expiration windows, and standard deviation rules to sell, buy, roll, or cascade positions with clear profit targets.

Learn to implement the high occurrence options plan by selling puts and calls on the S&P futures. Use vertical spreads with 45-60 day expirations to manage risk amid rising volatility.