Option and commoditiy trades are done primarily as insurance hedges. You have a big long position in the market and you buy puts to hedge or insure your position. A Farmer wants to insure his corn crop so he hedges his crop with commodities.
Where there is a market there is the opportunity for the speculators to play that market. I have been in the business for 25 years and never have known anyone who made money over the long haul trading in commodities or options. Doesn't mean there isn't someone out there that has, but I don't know them.
I do know some who have read a book or bought a program to trade them and lost their shirts. As a matter of fact I know someone who just had to go back to work because he took a $500,000 hit using one of these failsafe programs. That is $500,000 on top of the $250,000 he made before he took the hit.
There is a difference between investing and speculating. Investing takes time and patience and you won't get rich quick.
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