Did everyone catch this AI-driven rally in the U.S. stock market in 2026? AMD, Micron, and SanDisk have all multiplied several times in 2026, but for regular investors, gains like these naturally come with some concerns:

  1. Hard to decide when to enter: stocks like these are highly volatile. If you chase, you worry about buying right at the top before a pullback; if you don’t, you can only watch the rally pass you by.
  2. Hard to hold on to profits: even if you get the direction right, after a big move up, a pullback of dozens of percentage points can be very normal, and unrealized gains can disappear at any time.
  3. You want to buy the dip, but not just sit around waiting: if you like a stock and want to buy it at a lower price, placing a limit order means passively waiting. Whether it fills or not is mostly up to luck.

This is where options can be valuable for ordinary investors: they allow you to use a relatively small premium to speculate, hedge, or even acquire shares at a discount. Used well, options can provide built-in leverage to pursue outsized returns with a smaller amount of capital; at the same time, they are also a risk management tool that can put “insurance” on the stocks you already hold.

So with so many options brokers on the market, which one should you choose?

Here I recommend Moomoo, which I have been using for a long time. This July, Moomoo systematically integrated its previously scattered options tools into the Moomoo Options Engine. In one app, it covers everything from understanding the options chain to building a complete strategy, making options less complicated and helping you trade with more confidence. Most importantly, these features are completely free. In the practical examples below, we will use Moomoo for illustration.

About Options

Options are a very practical trading and investing tool, especially when markets are volatile. They can help you pursue larger potential returns with smaller capital, hedge existing stock holdings, and enhance potential gains. However, options are more complex than stocks, so many beginners start feeling like giving up as soon as they begin learning the basic concepts. This article will help you understand options and learn how to trade them. Before trading options, it is recommended that you go through these concepts first.

To make it easier to understand, let’s start with the simplest example of what an option is.

Suppose John wants to buy a house. The current price is $1 million, but he hears from a friend that home prices may fall. He is hesitant, but he is also afraid that if prices rise, he will no longer have enough money. So John signs a contract with the developer stating that one year from now, no matter how the home price changes, he can buy the house for $1 million. To make the contract binding, John has to pay a $20,000 option premium. Two things can happen in the future:

1. One year later, the home price rises. John still buys the house for $1 million, and the option premium is not refunded.

2. One year later, the home price falls sharply. John simply gives up the contract, and the $20,000 option premium is gone.

Because he locked in the ability to buy at the then-current price, John can still come out ahead even after losing the option premium. For John, he used $20,000 to lock in the risk of home price fluctuations. What John bought is a call option. His maximum loss is the option premium mentioned above, because if the home price is below $1 million next year, he will not exercise the contract; at that point, it would be cheaper to buy at the market price.

Definition and Key Elements of Options

An option is a contract between a buyer and a seller. Simply put: the buyer pays the seller a sum of money, and in exchange, the buyer receives the right to buy or sell the underlying asset of the options contract at an agreed price on or before a specified date. The seller receives money from the buyer, but may be obligated to buy or sell the underlying asset at the agreed price on or before the specified date. Each options contract contains five important elements: the underlying asset, option type, strike price, option premium, and expiration date. Before every options trade, you need to carefully confirm this information.

  • Underlying asset: The underlying asset of an option is the item that the buyer and seller agree to trade when the option is exercised, including stocks, indexes, foreign exchange, commodities, and more.
  • Option type: Options are divided into two categories: calls and puts. A call option gives the buyer the right to buy the underlying asset, while a put option gives the buyer the right to sell the underlying asset.
  • Strike price: The price at which the option buyer and seller agree to trade the underlying asset.
  • Option premium: The market price of the options contract, and the cost paid by the option buyer to the option seller.
  • Expiration date: The date on which the options contract expires.

If the option buyer does not exercise before expiration, they will lose the option premium. Of course, buying or selling an option does not mean you must wait until expiration. You can choose to close the position before expiration to take profits or cut losses early.

NVDA Example

Next, let’s use the extremely popular NVDA as the example for a few simple scenarios. Note: the underlying asset and prices below are for educational demonstration only, do not constitute financial or investment advice, and do not reflect current real market conditions.

Scenario 1: “Use $1,000 to Make $9,000” (Buying Calls for Efficient Stock Exposure)

Example: Suppose NVDA is currently at $200, but I am long-term bullish and think it can reach $300.

  • - Regular approach (buying shares): If I want to buy 100 shares, I need to spend $20,000. The cost is too high and ties up a lot of capital.
  • - Options approach: You only need to spend $1,000 to buy 1 at-the-money contract, locking in the right to buy 100 shares at $200 in the future.

When the stock really rises to $300:

  • Stock return: you make $10,000, but your capital is $20,000, for a 50% return.
  • Options return: ($300 - $200) × 100 - $1,000 = $9,000 in net profit!

With the same correct directional view, you used only $1,000 of capital and gained the possibility of a 9x return. Using a small amount of money to control much larger potential upside is the appeal of options.

Scenario 2: Put “Insurance” on the Stocks You Hold (Buying Puts to Reduce Downside Risk)

Suppose you already hold NVIDIA shares, but there may be negative news ahead that could cause the stock price to fall.

Hedging approach (buying a put option): you spend $1,000 to buy a put option. If the stock price really plunges, the shares you hold will lose money, but the price of this put option will rise sharply, helping offset your stock losses. This is a true example of spending a small amount to solve a much bigger problem.

Scenario 3: Build a Position at a Lower Price

For example, suppose NVIDIA is currently trading at $200. The stock market has been volatile recently, and you want to build a position, but you are not sure how far NVIDIA may fall. You could sell a put option with a $180 strike price expiring next week, next month, or several weeks later. Note that this means selling, not buying. As a result, you immediately receive hundreds to thousands of dollars in option premium.

Case A: The stock price does not fall below $180

  • - Result: the contract expires worthless, and you earn $215 in pure profit.
  • - Logic: although you did not buy the shares, you earned a bit of “interest” as cash flow income.

Case B: The stock price falls below $180, assuming it falls to $178

  • Result: you are assigned and buy 100 shares of NVIDIA at the agreed price of $180.
  • Let’s do the math: on paper, the stock position appears to be “losing money”: ($178 - $180) × 100 = -$200. Subtract the premium you already received: +$215.
  • Final result: not only did you buy the dip at the lower price you wanted, but overall you even made a small $5 profit! Your actual cost basis would be below $180.

In one sentence: if the stock rises or trades sideways, you earn premium income; if it falls, you buy quality shares at a discount. This is why selling puts is often called a “discount dip-buying tool.”

How to Trade

After all that, is there an options trading platform that is easy to use?

Yes. For options beginners, the most important thing is a simple, easy-to-understand interface that is not too complicated. It is even better if it is free to use. In July 2026, Moomoo launched the new Moomoo Engine, divided into three engines: fundamentals, technicals, and options. The Options Engine integrates all the very useful options tools in one place.

Recommendation Reason 1: Beginner-Friendly; Even Beginners Can Build Strategies and Select Contracts

The most beginner-friendly feature in Moomoo’s Options Engine is the options strategy function. As long as you have a forecasted direction in mind, it can generate the corresponding options strategy with one click, showing profit and loss as well as probabilities at a glance.

Let’s still use NVDA as the example. Suppose we think NVIDIA will rise to $250 in the future. In Moomoo’s options strategy function, you select bullish and set the target price at $250. It will then automatically generate the corresponding options strategy for you. You can directly follow the example, and both potential profit and loss are clearly calculated for you.

If you are not sure how much the current options contract would gain or lose when NVDA’s stock price moves, you can also use Moomoo’s options profit and loss analysis to evaluate it. You can import the options you want to buy or sell, whether it is a single-leg trade or a multi-leg strategy. It displays the option’s profit and loss very intuitively, saving you from having to use complicated methods and tools.

Reason #2: Real-Time Alerts for Unusual Market Activity, So You Do Not Miss Profit Opportunities

Options market moves can be gone in an instant, so timing your entry is especially important. Moomoo’s “unusual options activity” feature can capture unusually large options trades in real time, helping us quickly understand where “smart money” may be positioning.

For example, here we can see that for a certain stock, the platform displays both large-money trades in some longer-dated options for 2028–2029 and call and put trades expiring in 2026. We can use these “smart money” trades across different strike prices and expiration dates as a reference.

Reason #3: Use GEX to View Market Support and Resistance More Intuitively

Moomoo’s options engine includes quite a few options analysis tools. The most intuitive one is GEX, or Gamma Exposure. You do not need to get too caught up in the exact technical meaning. Simply put, GEX is the “hedging map” for market makers and major institutional players. For options beginners, its biggest value comes down to two things:

It tells you where the “ceiling” and “floor” are

  • Call Wall (ceiling): When the stock price rises near this level, it can easily get pushed back down (strong resistance).
  • Put Wall (floor): When the stock price falls near this level, it can easily bounce back up (strong support).
  • Value for beginners: Beginners do not have to guess support and resistance blindly. Look where the walls are, and use those levels for taking profit or buying the dip.

It tells you whether the broader market is acting like a “car” or a “roller coaster”

  • Positive GEX (stock price above zero gamma): The broader market is moving very steadily and is more likely to trade sideways.
  • Meaning: Be careful when buying directional options (buying calls/puts), otherwise time value may decay away for nothing.
  • Negative GEX (stock price below zero gamma): The broader market is highly prone to sharp rallies and selloffs (roller-coaster mode is on).
  • Meaning: Do not casually act as an options seller (sell options); protect yourself from liquidation risk in a strong one-way market move.

In short: the point of looking at GEX is not to predict whether the market will go up or down, but to avoid sideways-market traps and identify the major players’ support and resistance levels.

Reason #4: $0 Commission Trading, a Must-Have for Saving Money

Finally, another very important point is that options traders need to pay close attention to a platform’s commissions and trading fees. Moomoo currently offers $0 commissions and $0 contract fees for options trading (among the first tier of mainstream platforms), which can help us easily save a large amount of money on options trading and “win at the starting line.”

In actual use, its options tools are also much easier to use than Robinhood’s in many ways. For example, the automatic strategy construction, unusual activity data, AI features, and other tools mentioned above are not offered by Robinhood, but they are all available for free on Moomoo. For a detailed comparison, you can see my previous review article:

Options Trading Platform Comparison

Futu Moomoo has compiled a comparison of different trading platforms for options trading.

  • Fee comparison
  • Tradable options types
  • Feature comparison

About Futu Moomoo

After using it for a while, I found that Moomoo not only has powerful options trading features and low fees, but is also very strong for stock trading and cryptocurrency trading. If you are interested in options and also want to trade assets such as U.S. stocks, ETFs, and crypto, Moomoo’s capabilities in these areas are also worth a look.

It has accumulated more than 31 million users worldwide, across more than 200 countries and regions, and holds financial licenses and qualifications in multiple regions around the world. It also supports real-time Chinese-language news updates and 24-hour Chinese-language customer service.

The Fundamental Engine Research Tool Is Very Powerful

As one of the core parts of this Moomoo Engine launch, the Fundamental Engine includes very powerful features. Many functions that are paid or even unavailable on other platforms can be used for free on Moomoo.

1. AI Earnings Hub: Moomoo extracts the key information from the latest quarterly earnings report for you, and also uses AI to summarize the earnings call. This is very valuable for people who do not have time to listen to the entire call.

2. Smart Money: This is a very beginner-friendly feature. You can directly see the money flows of major stock market investors and institutions. If you do not want to rack your brain picking stocks, it is also very convenient to use Moomoo Smart Money to follow what the big players are buying.

A Full Range of Crypto Trading Products, with More Flexible Cross-Platform Use

For cryptocurrency trading, Moomoo is also at the forefront of the industry:

1. Full coverage of mainstream coins: It already supports 60+ mainstream cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), SOL, Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), and even Binance Coin BNB;

2. Crypto deposits and withdrawals coming soon: Crypto deposit and withdrawal functions will be supported gradually going forward. Once available, you will be able to transfer assets across platforms more easily, making operations more flexible and convenient.

Professional Trading Data Is Completely Free, and 24-Hour Trading Means You Do Not Have to Stay Up Watching the Market

Features such as LV3 real-time quotes and Volume Profile are paid features on other platforms, but they are all free on Moomoo, which can help us save more money for investing.

Moomoo also supports 5×24-hour pending orders. You can place orders during pre-market and after-hours sessions, and there are 13 order types (such as trailing stop and OCO), enabling automated market monitoring. Office workers also do not need to stay up late watching the market.

Overall Conclusion

Moomoo’s core advantages are “zero commissions + powerful features + one-stop global investing + Chinese-friendly support.” In this review, I found that its options features are also simple and easy to use, with the same $0 commission structure. It is suitable for beginners trying options for the first time, while also offering comprehensive data and tools for more advanced traders, supporting more complex trading strategies and diverse order types. This saves you the hassle of having to switch platforms after moving beyond the beginner stage (as far as I know, this often happens with Robinhood). Of course, if you are Chinese-speaking, Moomoo’s news coverage and Chinese-language customer service are even more of a must-have.

Account Opening Bonus

Sign up for Moomoo through this site’s exclusive link, meet the deposit requirements, and you can stack up to three rewards: up to $1,000 in NVDA, $100 in trading coupons, an ultra-high 8.1% APY on idle cash, plus one free year of Moomoo Engine premium features. You can review the rewards one by one below. I think the best value is depositing $2,000 to get $200. If you have enough funds, you can go up to $10,000 to get $300. Idle cash also earns 8.1% APY.

First bonus: new user deposit reward, get up to $1,000 in NVDA

  • Make a first cumulative deposit of $500 and receive $30 worth of NVDA stock -> 60-day lock-up
  • Make a first cumulative deposit of $2,000 and receive a cumulative $100 worth of NVDA stock -> 60-day lock-up
  • Make a first cumulative deposit of $10,000 and receive a cumulative $200 worth of NVDA stock> 60-day lock-up
  • Make a first cumulative deposit of $50,000 and receive a cumulative $400 worth of free NVDA stock -> 120-day lock-up ($200 released after 60 days, remaining $200 released after 120 days)
  • Make a first cumulative deposit of $100,000 and receive a cumulative $1,000 worth of free NVDA stock -> 180-day lock-up ($200 released after 60 days, $400 released after 120 days, remaining $400 released after 180 days)

You can use your deposit to trade, or simply leave it there to earn interest. If you do trade, I recommend depositing a bit more so you don’t fall below the required threshold after any losses!

Second bonus: trading coupon reward. After new users deposit $100, they get 10 $10 trading coupons

  • Each $100+ trade can use one coupon, which is basically an incentive to trade more. If you just want to cash it out, buying SGOV works.
  • Also, if you refer a friend to sign up for Moomoo, you’ll get another $10*10 in trading coupons.

Third bonus: high interest for new users, account-opening Cash Sweep bonus up to 8.1% APY

  • New customers can join Cash Sweep as soon as they open an account. The coupon will be sent to the account and needs to be activated in the app.
  • Idle cash can earn 3.35% APY + a 2-month 4.75% APY booster (supports deposits and withdrawals anytime + automatic trade settlement). This 8.1% APY applies only to the first $20,000 in cash deposits.

Note: This article covers Moomoo U.S. benefits and product feature information. If you apply with an SSN or ITIN and enter a U.S. address, you can receive the bonus normally.

Related U.S. Stock Articles

Stock Basics

Below are introductions and sign-up bonuses for several commonly used U.S. stock brokerages.

Review Sign-up bonus Quick take
Moomoo (Futu) $200 stock card + $1,000 NVDA + 8.1% APY Feature-rich, with a good Chinese-language experience. Market data, Level 2, options, and cash management are all practical, making it suitable for everyone from beginners to active traders.
TradeUp (Tiger Brokers) 50 NVDA shares + chance to win 5 shares + 4% for three months Good for active trading. Trading fees and margin are relatively competitive for U.S. tax residents, and it supports Web Trading, Level 2, and Chinese-language customer service.
Webull 12 fractional shares + 1 month of Premium membership Strong market-monitoring and active-trading features, with relatively complete charts, technical indicators, options, and pre-market/after-hours trading. Best for users who trade frequently.
BBAE Up to $650 bonus Relatively convenient account opening for Chinese users, and you can apply without an SSN/ITIN. Chinese-language support is good, but there is currently a Platform Fee, so it is not ideal for small-balance high-frequency trading.
Robinhood Chance to get 1 stock Simple interface and easy to use, suitable for beginners buying U.S. stocks for the first time. Gold users also get a high yield on idle cash and a lower Margin Rate.
Interactive Brokers Up to $1,000 Highly professional, with support for global markets and multiple currencies. Margin costs are competitive, and it also supports account opening for Chinese residents, making it suitable for advanced and global investors.
TradeStation $250 Geared more toward professional and active trading, with strong advanced charting, strategy backtesting, and automated trading features. Ordinary long-term investors may not need it.
Schwab Up to $1,000 Good for long-term investing and larger asset balances, and convenient for buying ETFs and CDs. Checking and worldwide ATMs are also strengths, but the default interest rate on idle cash is relatively low.
Fidelity brokerage account Sign-up link A long-established full-service brokerage, suitable for long-term investing, ETFs, and retirement accounts. Cash management is also solid, making it a good primary brokerage for the long run.
BIT (formerly Matrixport) Deposit and trade to get $210 Suitable for Chinese users and digital-asset users. You can use funds such as USDT/USDC to allocate to U.S. stocks. It is not a traditional U.S. brokerage, so fees and the asset custody structure need to be reviewed separately.
SoFi Invest Open an account to get $75 Simple to use and supports Stock Bits, making it suitable for small-balance and long-term investing. Professional market data and trading tools are limited, so it is not suitable for frequent trading.
M1 Finance Invest Deposit money to get $10 Focuses on Pies and automated investing. It is suitable for long-term recurring investments after setting your stock and ETF allocations, but not for users whose main focus is active trading.

If you do not have an SSN/ITIN but still want to trade U.S. stocks, you can consider the brokerages/platforms below. They can be registered entirely with Chinese documents, using either an ID card or passport. None participate in China's CRS.

  • BBAE: Chinese-user-friendly; you can open an account without an SSN/ITIN.
  • BIT (formerly Matrixport): You can open an account with an ID card, and approval can take just a few hours.
  • Bitget platform: Identity verification can be completed with an ID card or Chinese passport.

If you are in mainland China and want to invest in U.S. stocks, see this summary: