Options

5 Options Strategies for Beginners

Astron Team · 09/24/2026 · 4 min read

Options are contracts: whoever buys a call option acquires the right, but not the obligation, to buy an asset at an agreed price by a future date. Whoever buys a put option acquires the right to sell. For that right, the buyer pays an amount called the premium, and it's precisely the small size of that premium, relative to the asset's value, that draws so many people into the options market.

The problem is that most beginners start out buying and selling loose options with no strategy, and find out in practice that losing 100% of the premium is more common than it seems. This article presents five basic structures, from the most limited risk to the more advanced, with worked-out examples so you can understand the reasoning before risking real money.

Before the strategies: the numbers every option has

Every option has an underlying asset (the reference stock or index), a strike price, and an expiration date. Suppose a stock XPTO3 trading at R$ 50.00. A call with a R$ 52.00 strike and 30 days to expiration costing R$ 1.50 means: you pay R$ 1.50 per share (the lot is usually 100 shares, so R$ 150.00 in total) for the right to buy XPTO3 at R$ 52.00 until expiration, even if it rises to R$ 60.00.

1. Buying a call: betting on a rally with limited loss

If XPTO3 rises to R$ 58.00 before expiration, your R$ 52.00-strike call is worth at least R$ 6.00 (58 − 52). You paid R$ 1.50, so the profit is R$ 4.50 per share, or 300% on the premium. If the stock doesn't go above R$ 52.00, the option expires worthless and you lose the R$ 1.50 invested — nothing more than that. That's the appeal of the strategy: the maximum loss is known at the moment of purchase.

2. Buying a put: betting on a decline or protecting yourself

The logic is the mirror image of the previous one. With XPTO3 at R$ 50.00, a R$ 48.00-strike put costing R$ 1.20 gives you the right to sell at R$ 48.00. If the stock falls to R$ 40.00, the put is worth at least R$ 8.00, a profit of R$ 6.80 on the premium paid. Many people use the put not to speculate on a decline, but as insurance for a long position — we'll come back to this in strategy 4.

3. Covered call: generating income on shares you already own

If you already own 100 shares of XPTO3 bought at R$ 50.00, you can sell a R$ 55.00-strike call and pocket the premium, say R$ 1.00 per share (R$ 100.00 for the lot). If the stock stays below R$ 55.00 until expiration, the call isn't exercised and you keep the entire premium, plus the shares. If it rises above R$ 55.00, you're obligated to sell your shares at that price — still with a profit, just a capped one. It's an income strategy, not a speculative one, which is why it's usually the entry point for those who already hold a stock portfolio.

4. Protective put: insurance with a set price

If you have the same 100 shares at R$ 50.00 and fear a sharp drop before an event (a quarterly earnings report, for example), you can buy a R$ 47.00-strike put for R$ 1.00. If the stock plunges to R$ 35.00, your loss on the shares is partly offset by the gain on the put, which becomes worth at least R$ 12.00. In practice, you've locked in the worst-case scenario at around R$ 47.00 minus the premium paid, giving up part of the upside potential just for the cost of the insurance.

5. Straddle: betting on volatility, not direction

By simultaneously buying a call and a put with the same strike and expiration, you profit if the asset moves a lot — up or down. With XPTO3 at R$ 50.00, a R$ 50.00-strike call and put costing R$ 1.50 each add up to a R$ 3.00 investment. You only profit if the stock moves outside the R$ 47.00 to R$ 53.00 range before expiration; inside it, both options lose value and the loss can reach the full R$ 3.00. It's a strategy used around events that tend to generate sharp moves, but it costs twice as much as a simple directional position.

What to take into practice

None of these structures guarantees a profit — all of them carry a real risk of loss, including the total loss of the premium paid. Before trading with money you can't afford to lose, it's worth simulating each strategy with small amounts and tracking how the option's price reacts to time and to changes in the asset; platforms like Astron allow this kind of practice before increasing position sizes. What beginners who survive in the options market have in common isn't getting the price direction right, but never risking more than they're willing to lose on each trade.