From many opinions of people I have seen so far on this, I would say You "get more bang for the buck" trading options, so to speak. Options have the element of time and decay. The losses are already known. A trader KNOWS he/she cannot lose any more than the cost of the option. But on the other; Stocks are easier to get right — For stocks you just need to get the direction right, while for options you need to get 3 things right: the direction (call or put), timing (expiration date), and magnitude (premium). If you are buying stocks on margin, you would also need to get the timing and magnitude right. So I would say whichever suits us would be better!