Hopeful's option purchase may have even been a very smart move: e.g. if he bought at $6 when the stock was on the way to $12, could easily have seen a 3-4 times gain in Jan 10 calls at the max value of the leaps. But options are super risky and tough to play even for the experienced speculator who gets the direction and timing right. In the scenario I mentioned you'd have to know well enough to take profits at least enough to get your money out when you have the chance and realize that even when it looks like you are genius or it starts feeling like it's easy to make a huge return, it can all be lost very quickly if you don't take the gains. Leaps seem to be safer than short term calls, but either way you can make a lot but you have to have greating timing both when to get in and when to get out. It's almost impossible to do that if you are not very experienced with options. Even when you're doing well they can mess with your head so that you slip on a banana peel. They sometimes mimic stock investment but they are worlds apart from that - the leverage is fierce both ways. It's a lot easier to lose money than it is to make it. Unless you're an experienced trader it's hard to exit a losing position with less than 50% loss because the prices move so fast, and even when you are ahead it the gains can evaporate with a relatively small move in the underlying stock.
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