Really depends on where you're trading. People used to the ups and downs of crypto won't do with anything less than trading options. They're extremely volatile, extremely risky, and can go down to 0 worth in no time, but the upside potential is way higher than stocks. If you guess the direction right you can go into the hundreds or thousands of percents in returns. I'm not sure what stock markets and exchanges you have access to. American-style and European-style options are different in that American options can be "exercised", or used, before the expiration date, whereas European options only exercise on the expiration date, so there is less risk with them of someone exercising an option you sold.
I'd say start by reading up on options. Right now in the US equities market we hit a double top and are on a downtrend yet again, so put options have increased in price. If things have been trending up then call options increase in price generally and put options decrease in price, so calling the big swings typically nets you the largest returns because I feel like options traders are often momentum-based traders and get caught out when the big reversals happen so they misprice the risk.
You can start in a paper account, but all I can say about that is that paper trading is useful for practicing how to get in and out of positions, but isn't useful for learning your own psychology when real money is at risk.
Depending on your broker you'll have access to options with different time periods to them which determine how fast prices can change.
If you buy an option friday morning and it expire that trading day, it could go to 0 by end of day, or go in the money (ITM) and net you huge gains, but you have very little time to be right and you're definitely gambling at that point. If you're a highly skilled, technical trader, have a good grip on your own sanity (which is subject to get lost if you go on a losing streak), don't ignore your own risk measures and stay with a plan, then you can trade options that expire in shorter timespans (think days or weeks) because they move the most in price. Whereas longer-dated options can go out to weeks, months, or even years (LEAPS go out to 2021 for US options), so you're just making a general conviction play on the direction, or you're hedging yourself on stocks you already own and want some protection for them.
Oh, and options aren't for a single unit of a stock, 1 contract = a contract on 100 units of a stock, so they're kind of leveraged in that way, and you multiply the price you see by 100, so if a contract is being sold at $1 then it's really $100+broker fee. Thankfully broker fees are pretty cheap on options at most places.
So, not investment advice, but either learning how to play the choppiness of the days where they go up and down during volatility, or making a bet on things going up or down after a while over a longer period of time could be useful in this market environment. Just keep learning though, and if you were already good at identifying price movement patterns in crypto I'm sure you'll do fine with stocks or options.
Really depends on where you're trading. People used to the ups and downs of crypto won't do with anything less than trading options. They're extremely volatile, extremely risky, and can go down to 0 worth in no time, but the upside potential is way higher than stocks. If you guess the direction right you can go into the hundreds or thousands of percents in returns. I'm not sure what stock markets and exchanges you have access to. American-style and European-style options are different in that American options can be "exercised", or used, before the expiration date, whereas European options only exercise on the expiration date, so there is less risk with them of someone exercising an option you sold.
I'd say start by reading up on options. Right now in the US equities market we hit a double top and are on a downtrend yet again, so put options have increased in price. If things have been trending up then call options increase in price generally and put options decrease in price, so calling the big swings typically nets you the largest returns because I feel like options traders are often momentum-based traders and get caught out when the big reversals happen so they misprice the risk.
You can start in a paper account, but all I can say about that is that paper trading is useful for practicing how to get in and out of positions, but isn't useful for learning your own psychology when real money is at risk.
Depending on your broker you'll have access to options with different time periods to them which determine how fast prices can change.
If you buy an option friday morning and it expire that trading day, it could go to 0 by end of day, or go in the money (ITM) and net you huge gains, but you have very little time to be right and you're definitely gambling at that point. If you're a highly skilled, technical trader, have a good grip on your own sanity (which is subject to get lost if you go on a losing streak), don't ignore your own risk measures and stay with a plan, then you can trade options that expire in shorter timespans (think days or weeks) because they move the most in price. Whereas longer-dated options can go out to weeks, months, or even years (LEAPS go out to 2021 for US options), so you're just making a general conviction play on the direction, or you're hedging yourself on stocks you already own and want some protection for them.
Oh, and options aren't for a single unit of a stock, 1 contract = a contract on 100 units of a stock, so they're kind of leveraged in that way, and you multiply the price you see by 100, so if a contract is being sold at $1 then it's really $100+broker fee. Thankfully broker fees are pretty cheap on options at most places.
So, not investment advice, but either learning how to play the choppiness of the days where they go up and down during volatility, or making a bet on things going up or down after a while over a longer period of time could be useful in this market environment. Just keep learning though, and if you were already good at identifying price movement patterns in crypto I'm sure you'll do fine with stocks or options.