Tangential comment about options:
I'll explain an options trade I just entered. It's one of my favorites because it can be a free trade. In fact you can sometimes actually make money entering the trade even though that is not the intention. Over time, entering this type of trade has zero cost.
You would enter the trade when you expect a large move higher in price, but you are willing to accept that you may end up owning the stock at a price lower than the Put strike (while paying the higher Put strike for it). To me that is not much of a risk if one is willing to own the stock anyway, and doesn't mind having paid more for it when compared to outright buying the stock.
I'll explain the trade using NIO because that's what I used, but the trade is just as valid if I were to use AMD, so I rationalize explaining the trade here.
The trade can be done in either an IRA account or an Individual account. I just entered it in both types of accounts.
It's a two-leg options trade involving both Puts and Calls:
I first sold N March 15 $8 Puts @ $0.55. (That must be backed by cash in an IRA account.) I then bought N March 15 $11 Calls @ $0.60. That combination is a Long trade which cost $0.05 to enter, yet there is no limit on how high the profit can be.
Sometimes one can make a small profit while entering the trade. But the main object of the trade is to get into it at the lowest cost possible, and is usually very close to $0. The worst-case risk is that I'm Put the shares at $8 while the stock is trading at or below $8. In this case I don't consider that as being a high risk.
Usually I enter the above type of trade using strikes that are at least a few months out (so that it has a long time to work), so using a short period this time is a sort of experiment.
What's "funny" about this trade is that its cost of entry is so small that it is common that your percent gain can easily be several thousand percent. Imagine the bragging rights you would have!
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
