The pandemic has dramatically altered the way we live our lives. By now, people all across the world have gotten used to being at home with a lot of extra time on their hands. New hobbies have emerged, as many sit around trying to find exhilaration and an escape from reality. The stock market has been my go-to escape for a little exhilaration, as it has offered many lucrative opportunities to make a quick buck since last March. With all major U.S. indices having completely recovered and roared to new all-time highs off the lows of last March, there really isn’t a reason to believe that the stock market will ever collapse to zero, unless you believe that an asteroid is going to hit Earth sometime in the future. Long-term investing is therefore the greatest way to save for the future and retirement. However, I am here to cater to my peers at Hofstra who are hungry for volatility and can put off saving for retirement for a few more years.

Volatility is king in the world of hedge funds for all those who wish to make a significant amount of money over a short period of time, as it implies significant movement over that short period of time. Using call options is a much cheaper way to make your desired gains rather than buying shares of a company. The catch is, you don’t actually own shares unless you exercise the option. Also, if the price of the underlying stock doesn’t reach the predetermined call price plus the premium paid up front at the time of expiration, then your option is worthless. Furthermore, when comparing a less expensive option to a more expensive option, the more expensive one entails less risk because the underlying stock price doesn’t have to go up as much by the time expiration comes knocking. If you want to make a lot of money quickly and want to give yourself the best chance when trading call options, it is wise to first analyze events that drive market action such as company earnings, releases of economic data and government policy to make informed decisions.

With most of the basics of options trading out of the way, let’s get to what’s trending and why. Recently, new variants of COVID-19 that are more deadly and contagious have begun to appear, so I expect vaccine and PPE stocks to return to the spotlight when our country experiences another surge in cases. Furthermore, the work(out) at home trend is likely here to stay for the foreseeable future with these additional variants, so it will make sense when Peloton and Zoom undergo at least one more remarkable run like the one they both had during the summer of 2020.

Companies that will impact our lives in the near future should be the target of call options traders because a high demand for their products will eventually correlate with a rise in their stock prices.  “There is always a bull market somewhere,” says famous investor Jim Cramer, and like him, I will continue to help you find it in the next edition of Hofstra’s version of Wall Street Bets.