I really want to get some expereicne trading options with margin, as well as buying and selling calls and puts, and even trading credit and debit spreads.

Is there a place where I can do this without having to use real money, that scares me a little until I get some more experience?

I am keen to start looking at the options market. I currently have a conservative and diverse portfolio of long positions in the stock market. I understand the risks involved, but I'd like to know what experienced traders think, is there an amount based on your portfolio value that you need to have, or is it based on how much you are prepared to lose?

Hi there, I am a newbie, but I am looking for a good place to get into Options trading.

Ideally somewhere that can give me some help to get going, perhaps with a course or something like that.

I have some earnings from trading in options on stocks in the share market. My broker has informed me that no form 1099 is issued in respect of earnings from options trading. That being so, how does the IRS know what earnings an options trader had in a given year?

Has (Does?) options-trading (futures) affected the stock market? Is there any positive or negative impact of trading options directly or indirectly on the trading of stocks?

Not that I'm not trying to understand what is options trading – I am trying to find out if there has been any study on the impact of futures trading on a stock market on a general scale.

I have a quant background in hedging, so I'm not asking for guidance on how to learn modeling or developing strategies for trading options. I have work experience doing option valuation and developing dynamic replication strategies, but I have never done the trading.

I might consider trading CFDs as I don't think that options trading is for me because they are so complicated to me and I can barely understand them. What I'd like to know is if CFDs are easier than options trading and can the rewards be the same as options or greater?