Tell him the reality. If the stock blows up you will lose your shirt on the put you sold. If you buy a call you will lose is what you pay for the call. In addition there are margin regulations when a put is sold in an opening transaction.
It is not for you to decide his risk level but since you decided to answer the question a caveat should have been included.
Selling a put will pay less but has much more risk because you could have a falling knife thrown at you. However, a lot of people make money selling puts. Selling a put is not really a bullish stance; it’s more of a not-bearish stance or more accurately a mildly bullish one. You get to keep the premium you earned if the stock stays above the strike. You don’t own any of the price movement above that so your max profit is fixed at the premium. If the stock rises a lot you will benefit by your short puts becoming worthless. If the stock continues to rise and rise then that doesn’t help you. When buying a call you are risking your entire premium and no more. This is a bullish position and you will continue to profit no matter how high the stock goes. You “own” all of the price movement above the (strike plus premium) BE point. If you do both (buy the call, sell the put at the sa,e strike and expiration) then you have a long position in the underlying at the strike.
Personally, I appreciate members who are willing to respond to questions as asked. I also feel like this thread is giving me a lot of the kind of information I've been seeking in terms of options—providing me with a better idea as to what any publication I eventually buy needs to explain clearly. As for risk levels, anyone who feels they see a gap or shortcoming in any of these responses is certainly free to fill them in. The bottom line is, I appreciate the answers you and others have offered to try to help out the original poster.
you are the laziest poster on this site. Your greatest contribution has been a short lived Thread of attractive women. you are capable of more than just snide remarks. It’s a shame you don’t.
If you intend to trade options as directional plays on the underlying - betting on a rally or a decline - then you FIRST need to have confidence in your ability to trade the underlying directly. If you can't do that first, then options, for many reasons, will just accelerate your losses.