@Zyzz Nice, I like to use options during earnings season too, though I will usually get ones expiring a few days or maybe a week max after the earnings report comes out since they respond more sharply to the movement of the stock.
Outside earnings season, I still like to use options for all sorts of things. For a while I was using OTM "protective" puts as insurance on an ETF I was holding (This was USO for the first six months of 2015). Sometimes I buy naked puts deep ITM as a way to short a stock, which I did with SPY in the 3rd quarter 2014 and turned my first profit. More recently I've been selling OTM covered calls on SPY as a way to get extra money out of holding that stock. During earnings season I will usually use vertical spreads as a way to cap the cost of the options I buy and as a way to more easily quantify my risk/reward ratio (vertical spreads, especially with very close strikes, act a lot like binary options). Those are the main strategies I use. Sometimes if I have an opinion about something long term but I don't think it will happen short term, (like if I think SPY will go up in the next 3 months, but not in the next week) then I might buy a calendar spread where I buy longterm OTM and sell short term OTM. I also played with selling an Iron Condor once and I might a few bucks. The covered calls and the Iron Condors I used for safer bets that net me just a few bucks, and they're always near-term expiry.

what are good resources (preferably free) to learn about options and how to use them>

?*

I gave a talk on here a few weeks ago. I can do it again.

If you get one or two more people to join that would be even better @Deleted User

@ThisIsChris Options are a lot of fun. I usually buy puts on stocks I think will bomb on earnings.

Here's a leverage story you might like:

in early summer 2015, I read an article about how Chinese peasants were double-mortgaging their properties to buy into the stock market

there were makeshift "stock cafes" being set up where they could come in and buy stock.

I saw this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make an obvious play

There's an ETF called YANG

it's a 3x leveraged bear fund for the broad Chinese stock market

Oh yeah YING and YANG lol

so if the chinese market goes down 1%, it's engineered to increase 3%

yeah, exactly

So I bought a couple thousand worth of OOM call options on it

oh god, 3x ETF, in an options story...

😃

worked out pretty well

Wow, I have to call no homo and no schlomo, but that's really awesome

I could have held on a few more weeks, but I was very happy with the return

opportunities like that don't come around very often .I was lucky enough to read the right news article

I was lucky it tanked so quickly too. If I had been off on my timing it would have been a washout

sometimes things work out!

Yeah good job dude putting that into action!

I love those complex strategies though

it's fun to see them mapped out in thinkorswim

I haven't seen a good opportunity for one yet. I usually keep it simple-minded.

Yeah I love looking at charts showing payoffs evolve in time, and how they start off in these weird smooth shapes that slowly converge to rigid slopes

Yes!

Can you tag me if you're making an interesting trade? I'd at least like to follow along. I might jump in too if I understand it enough to make an informed decision.

Yeah dude I definitely will, please do likewise!

I understand the fundamentals, but I don't spend enough time digging into opportunities

you bet!

Yeah that's a New Years Resolution of mine is to research opportunities. Past year I've just been doing things around earning season on FAAAMNNG or covered calls on SPY. I had more time to research this stuff a few years ago and looking to get back into it more

The YANG trade I mentioned earlier ^^^

dude that's so awesome

Covered calls are fun

Great way to make your blue chips do a little extra work

Yeah I usually sell slightly OTM SPY calls expiring the next wednesday or Friday