Free lessons › Options Mastery
Options Mastery: Defined risk, clear math, no lottery tickets.
What an option is, how it is priced, the Greeks in plain English, and the core defined-risk strategies — calls, puts, vertical spreads, covered calls and cash-secured puts — with sizing and exit rules.
Difficulty: Beginner · 12 lessons · about 2 hours
Who it's for
New traders who want a clear, step-by-step foundation. Core principle: An option is a stock idea with a clock and a price tag. Respect both.
What you'll learn
Options Foundations
- What an option actually is — free: Calls, puts, premium, and why one contract controls 100 shares.
- Strike, expiration & moneyness — free: ITM, ATM, OTM and how expiration changes the trade.
- Reading an options chain: Bid/ask, last, volume and open interest — what to look at first.
How Options Are Priced
- Intrinsic value, extrinsic value & time decay — free: What you are really paying for, and how theta eats it.
- Implied volatility & IV crush: Why options get expensive before events and collapse after.
- The Greeks in plain English: Delta, gamma, theta and vega without the math anxiety.
Core Strategies
- Buying calls and puts with defined risk: Turning a stock setup into a long option trade.
- Choosing the strike and expiration: Delta, time and cost: picking a contract that fits the setup.
- Vertical debit spreads: Cheaper, defined-risk directional trades.
- Covered calls & cash-secured puts: Income strategies — and the risks nobody mentions.
Risk & Execution
- Liquidity, spreads & limit orders for options: Why wide markets quietly destroy options traders.
- Sizing and exit rules for options: Premium-at-risk sizing, profit targets, stops and earnings rules.