Older Men, More Whiskey, Options Trading, Less Money

I was thinking it was Waylon or Willie that sang that song alluded to in my title, but it was Tom T. Hall.  
For a while now, I've been curious as to how options trading works.  A friend of mine has taken a course, at considerable expense, in trading in options.  This was a couple of years back and he did quite well with it.  I assume that means in the millions of dollars or at least the high hundreds of thousands.  He told me and another friend(yes, I have two friends) that he used a strategy called the Iron Condor.  One surrounds the current position of the stock in question with puts and calls and as the expiration date approaches you will make a profit if the stock's price stays within this boundary.  

First problem, couldn't remember the name of the strategy.  Second problem, don't want to spend money learning about options trading.  I do want to learn about it though.  Another friend(really) Phil Huyck, says he bought a program a few years back.  Roughly 3K but it's on VCR.  I didn't ask and he didn't tell, so that is a possible means to learning.  

Just a couple of days ago I went to the library to see what they had available and came across Jim Cramer's book "Getting Back to Even."  He includes two chapters in there about using options. I wouldn't call Cramer a great or even good communicator,  but eventually he does get his message across if you stick with it.  So, I've gotten a bit of the puzzle figured out.  I still have about 90% more to learn.  There are a lot of strategies out there.  You don't have to know all of them but you really have to know the one you are going to employ very well.  Cramer gives one, Deep in the money calls.  He then tells how you can insure your gains, if the stock has moved up.  This is very clever and makes you realize that there are many smart people out there figuring out how to make money.  Many of them doing it illegally, not Cramer.  I feel like a target.  

If you ever listen to Options Action on CNBC you will soon discover, there is a language you must understand to know what they are talking about.  It starts with puts and calls and how one is just the opposite of the other.  It will take me a while to get the concept of when stocks go down, that can be a good thing.  You can sell it at the higher strike and capture the downside.  

Don't know how long I'll stick with this but if my Blog title is looking prophetic I think I'll stick to, " Faster Horses, Younger Women, Older Whiskey and More Money." Repeat at least 2x.