what are the main advantages of options 
options can be very useful as a source of leverage and risk hedging for example a bullish investor who wishes to invest 1 000 in a company could potentially earn a far greater return by purchasing 1 000 worth of call options on that firm as compared to buying 1 000 of that company s shares in this sense the call options provide the investor with a way to leverage their position by increasing their buying power on the other hand if that same investor already has exposure to that same company and wants to reduce that exposure they could hedge their risk by selling put options against that company 