When I first heard about options trading, I remember thinking it was something reserved for Wall Street professionals — the kind who stared at six screens and spoke in numbers faster than words. Every forum post or YouTube video seemed to make it sound “too risky,” “too complicated,” or “only for experts.” So for a while, I stayed away.
But curiosity got the better of me. I started reading about how options could actually reduce risk instead of increasing it — by hedging, generating income, or locking in prices. It wasn’t overnight; it took me a good two months of studying, watching tutorials, and paper-trading before things started to make sense.
The real turning point came when I understood the concept of a covered call. It clicked — this wasn’t gambling; it was strategy. I realized I could use options to generate passive income on stocks I already owned, without taking on reckless risk. That moment changed everything.
It took about three months from the day I got curious to the day I placed my first real trade — a simple covered call on Apple. My heart was racing as I clicked “confirm,” but it wasn’t fear this time — it was confidence built on understanding. Looking back, that single trade marked the shift from seeing options as “dangerous” to recognizing them as one of the most flexible tools in my investing toolkit.
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