Professionals tend to write options, and while writers as a group make money, their returns in percentage terms do not impress gamblers. Also, writing options is a capital-intensive business. You need hundreds of thousands of dollars to do it right, and most successful options writers operate with millions. And even theirs is not a risk-free business. A friend of mine, formerly a top money manager landed on the pages of The Wall Street Journal after losing 20 years of profits in a single bad day of writing naked puts.
Covered writers buy the underlying security and write options against it.
Naked writers sell calls and puts against stocks or futures they do not own, backing their writes with the money in their accounts. Writing naked options feels like taking money from thin air, but a violent move can quickly put you out of business. Even they occasionally lose money, but a rookie who does not have enough money to buy stocks and uses options to get more bang for his buck invariably ends up getting banged up himself. The time to learn about options comes after you have proven your ability to consistently make money trading. You need a minimum of one year of successful trading experience in stocks or futures before getting into options.