The best financial minds, traders, are the options traders, very few amateurs can get an edge. After several years studying and trying, I am still losing money in B-fly. If we amateurs play, we provide liquidity, i.e., I am paying for @taowave's and @destriero's yachts.
CBOE has a series of free classes, but it's a continuum and I don't think it lets you skip any of the sections. Passive income isn't outperformance as opposed to many other strategies. Doing it in a taxable account can also create phantom income, which is a real bitch so given a choice between taxable and qualified consider which serves you best.
This is how my imagination would describe Options trading. Learning to directionally trade stocks is no mean feat, there's a huge learning curve unless mentored by an experienced trader, so it depends on where you come into trading, on your own or mentored, but it can take many years of losses before you'll make headway. Ok: That was a description on directional stock trading. Now comes Options trading: Basically repeat the above. The crux is imo, learning Options trading is like juggling several balls in two hands, if you can do that you are indeed clever.
Spreads, debit or credit, in general, will lose money long term. Limited risks and limited rewards, you have to win lot of time. Naked directional bets are better way to trade. There is no neutral position in the market.
time is most important to me, letters are just tools. sell puts when market going up, buy calls when market going down, and s/r levels.