Options are contracts that represent 100 shares of an underlying stock. The contract allows you to buy or sell an underlying stock at a specific price (strike price) before the contract expires, but you are not obligated to do so. Instead, you can buy or sell the option contract before its expiration. A call option gives you the right to buy the underlying stock, and a put option allows you to sell an underlying stock. In each case, the value of your option increases when the underlying stock exceeds the strike price (call option), or it drops below the strike price (put option). The advantage of trading options instead of the underlying stock is the option price is just a fraction of the underlying stock's price, so the profit potential is much greater. That's why options can be very volatile instruments. Options traders try to capitalize on that volatility to capture short-term profits on the price movements. They utilize sophisticated trading tools to identify and develop an options strategy that anticipates those price movements.