If you don't have a lot of capital, in my opinion you are far better off trading options to get the leverage you need as you learn to trade. Not only that but most successful stock traders aren't just trading stocks, they are doing a lot of trades per day. Often at least 2+ trades a day, sometimes 20-100+ trades per day. If you don't have the capital, you will get flagged as a pattern daytrader (no more than 3 buy/sells in a day over a rolling 5 business day period, the 4th gets you flagged) so you're trades have to be very selective and worth the effort. Or you will be swing trading positions held overnight.
However you have to have a significantly higher risk tolerance and pain threshold incase you lose it all. It can literally wipe 50% of your account out in the matter of minutes if you are wrong. You have to seriously know when to sell and take a hit. Or when to hold on through the storm, riding it out and making a profit on your gut instincts. It takes a lot to be able to pull it off and sometimes it can be boring waiting around. Sometimes your option position will be so volatile that it will be swinging in and out of a significant loss as it charts it's way towards a profit. Do you sell out of fear or do you follow it through to where you think it will go and sell at a profit?
You have to be prepared to lose every gain you take and let them run. Because it will be painful if you take it too soon and you see it run up 300% right after. And you have to learn to take a loss and admit when you are wrong. Otherwise you'll be grabbing quick small profits here and there and will bleed your account fast with commissions.
Typically when you enter the trade it will go against you, you will instantly see your account drop a few percentage points since it's nearly impossible to buy near the bottom or sell near the top since you are waiting for the right signs to enter the trade. Option traders react very fast, far faster than stock traders. The only way to get near a bottom or go short near a top is to put it in ahead of time and be near the front of the line. Otherwise you are likely going to be ahead of the market to get filled in most cases. Sometimes the spreads can be an instant loss, you have to be careful.
You then also have to deal with low open interest on certain things. You might be at a profit however nobody is buying contracts at that price. You have to look at the tape to see if contracts are going off at that price, if not it doesn't matter if you are up. You still need the interest.
There is an excitement that comes with option trading though that you just can't get with stocks. And that excitement is knowing that most options expire worthless!
