Very often you can determine a stock's personality simply by looking at a price chart of the underlying action in the stock. That's a strong cue that it is in an uptrend. If the weekly price action in a stock is above its 10-week moving average, that would be another indication of an uptrend. And it's better if the moves are fairly gradual, because the premiums, or prices, that you have to pay for your options tend to be lower in that case than if a stock moves eight or 10 points at a clip and then moves sideways for a while. If you're an options buyer, the personality you're looking for is a relatively nonvolatile, uptrending stock.
Options traders can profit the most when their expectations differ from the market's.
The actual options that trade on individual stocks will very often give you a clue to current expectations. Let's take Microsoft as an example. Back in December 1997, the market was concerned by the ongoing antitrust investigation, and these concerns were manifested in a very heavy accumulation of put open interest. Open interest is, simply, the number of contracts that exist at any point in time. Calls and puts are considered separately, as are the various options' strike prices.