STOCKS:
Deciding which stocks to trade is a very important decision. Are you looking for a tight spread or a wide spread? Do you want extreme volatility or relatively flat issues? Do you want high, medium or low volume? Does the stock have to be optionable and, if so, what kind of option volume are you looking for? Do you care about dividends?
OPTIONS:
Why trade options?
Two main reasons are the leverage and the fact that you can know your total risk from the initiation of the trade depending upon how you trade them. There are a number of other more involved reasons that I will go into here.