This is not what you want to hear, but -- Buy the stock if you believe MSFT will be higher in a few months. And if you can't afford to buy the stock, then you shouldn't be in the market. For many reasons, neither a Single Stock Future or an option on MSFT is a good instrument to play.
options - if you buy the call option, no loss if msft falls below the strike price. you pay the premium. no margin call. strike price - depends on how much you want to pay and expected profit after deducting the premium.
There will be a right product for the right strategy. KISS Additional leverage will only be applicable if the risk/reward ratio allows it because of the risk of ruin.
That's absolutely incorrect. Could not be farther from the truth. At expiration the OP can lose the premium he paid for the option. In other words, his entire investment.
it could be further from the truth if he said, "if you buy the call option, you are guaranteed to make money if msft falls below the strike price"
Okay, I'll give you a point for that. Your statement would have indeed been even further from the truth that his original. Although, from the standpoint of the OP's request for information, either statement would have been far enough from the truth to lose his entire investment. Which, in thinking about it, isn't such a bad definition for buying calls in general. i.e. You don't need to be far from the truth to lose all your money.
That favorable payoff characteristic is priced into the option. Now, If his strat incorporates a way to identify overvaluation and undervaluation due to volatility/skew then he adds alpha. Another challenging domain of trading that can stand by itself. Otherwise, it just causes more friction on returns via costs and complexity. Most of us are better off buying an index fund levered with a home equity loan. But then the wife would force us to get a real job or do her errands.
Gosh, buying an index with home equity makes a lot of sense. Because as we all recall from 2006-2009, the stock market and the housing market never crash together. Duh.