I’m looking for pointers to good resources (podcasts or specific youtube channels) for options trading eduction and theories. I’ve got the basics down, have had a couple hour long sessions with a friend who has been successfully doing so for a couple of years, but I’d like to start listening to multiple points of view. This would be Fidelity based, if it matters.
As a non-options user, I’m curious - what is the investment objective for your options portfolio?
World domination! 
I just want to add some diversity into my portfolio. Have my 401k on a solid path, an IRA working, HSA invested well, but I don’t have much in the way of individual securities or other items like options. Just looking to diversify and want to read up on some strategies before jumping in, so I thought I’d solicit feedback for any specific vetted sources of information.
Look to leveraged ETFs like SSO and UPRO maybe instead. In your Roth IRA. They will get your motor running.
I have not done option trading. The link below is to a report on a study showing overall investor losses in option markets. The authors looked at a dataset containing information on trades on individual-equity options from the Nasdaq Stock Market and 32,791 earnings announcements for U.S. publicly traded firms, both spanning 11 years. They reported that investors made 3 mistakes: “they overpay for options relative to realized volatility, incur enormous bid-ask spreads, and sluggishly respond to announcements. These translate to retail losses of 5-to-9% on average”
Link: Retail investors lose big in options markets, research shows | MIT Sloan
@keg312ua I think your motivation is sound, but as @p1g1 points out, I just don’t know how to do it as a private person with a job and family who doesn’t want to watch the screen all day to put on and close out positions… and still make money! I have toyed with the idea, but when it gets to the part where I have to pay the option premium, I realize… “nah, this is a cover charge for me entering the casino. No thanks”.
@AustinBonds I think if @keg312ua wants to diversify then adding leveraged ETFs for popular indices is exactly the wrong thing to do. By doing so, he/she is INCREASING correlations. If the 401(k) goes down 20% for example, then SSO is down 40% and UPRO (3x) is very possibly going to zero (you’d expect a 60% drawdown, but in practice these things might do even worse, including break and shut down). Look at how UPRO did in 2022. That wasn’t nice, I’m sure it caused all kinds of investor panic.
Leveraged inverse ETFs are especially bad. The really don’t do well in volatility or when they are taking losses.
I think for diversification and interest, people should look for out-of-favor stocks and sectors that people aren’t chasing at the moment, which historically have low correlations to whatever is in the 401(k). It’s hard to know what those are. We see them in retrospect. I bought a lot of gold at $1000-$1300. I haven’t bought any since early 2018. But it was a solid move… it doesn’t replace stocks, but it has diversified the fixed income part of my portfolio. But looking around, I have no idea how I’d do that again. Everything seems expensive to me. I would not buy more gold at $2670 and oz, though I am holding and waiting for kind-of $4000 range to sell some off.
You know what’s a good 401(k) diversifier? Start a small side gig, or go back to school at night to get a new certificate or degree or skill that can translate into an additional income stream not connected to your current job, or allow you to advance in your current job, or provide insurance in case you get laid off.
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The article is solid 
I have actually made money in options as a stock replacement strategy but my best trades were sometimes my losers and some of my worst trades are actually ones that do well. I mainly did the index options instead of single stocks
That’s because options are not in isolation. The cost of an option is not only its time value but also the dividends you don’t receive. And it’s leveraged because you are borrowing the intrinsic value
The big cost of buying call options is the time value and the dividends lost, though that can be offset by the interest earned on the intrinsic value.
Excellent advice