Hedging stock positions when a correction is imminent or placing big bets in high odds situations. Anything else and your just a liquidity provider for the options market... The only time I would place options bets nowadays is shortly after crashes or at the ending areas of major corrections where the market range is over 50-150 points per three to five days. The kind of situations where you don't care to risk possibly getting stuck holding futures contracts as the market can 150 handles against you in a few days then 250 handles the other way.... When I think of people and options strategies it's like... "God, what a bunch of nerds..." The majority of options are sold by big firms on wall street to generate steady income. They have very advanced models... Stick with something simple that you actually have a good shot at... Futures, Forex, or Stocks... Unless you have a 97th+ percentile IQ and a good grasp of advanced math and statistics the long learning curve isn't worth it.
Actually, I technically do have a 99th percentile IQ, but I also am intelligent enough to know that the learning curve on stocks and futures is 10x as easy. Why waste energy with something that takes ten times as long to get good at and isn't as profitable? Honestly... Traders go through these stages... Traders who get bored with stocks because they win all the time move to futures... Then when they get bored of futures they move to options, then the highest skilled traders hang out in forex... Forex is real tricky because the retracement cycles are just not there. In equities and futures they are like clockwork.
No, I'm just telling you the facts... People are not born equal. Figure out what level of intelligence you have if any... Then decide upon a realistic game plan for yourself.
Options were good for me. Trading them paid for my MBA, my house, my family expenses, my vacations and my daughters four years of college. It paid for everything. Trading is trading. It does not matter what you trade. Find an edge in the market. Do it over and over until it does not work any more. Manage your risk. Don't gamble. 1245