Options are the palette of the trade artist. Noobs use 'em and abuse 'em for leverage, in order to try and make some real money with a small account. Funnily, it works pretty well in a bull market.
Stock options are subject to the pattern day trader rule (only a few trades per week in accounts under $25,000) just like stocks. Also, to trade them successfully in many market conditions, you normally have to use multi-leg spread positions. Why not look at day-trading forex instead as your main trading vehicle? (You can still experiment very lightly with stock options on the side while learning how they work). For example, the Euro and the Yen. You can trade them in small accounts no problem, long and short, there is lots of action, and the pattern day trader rule does not apply. They are often making parallel moves to stock indexes during the day anyway. And unlike buying a call or a put, forex positions do not by default continually lose money due to theta decay.