Best Options Trading Courses for April 2025

• Cost: $47 per month, $497 when paid annually, $697 one-time for life
• Free Trial: No
• Lifetime Access: Yes, highest price tier only
• Live Instruction: Yes

Most Comprehensive Offering

Bullish Bears is Investopedia’s pick for the most comprehensive options trading course because it offers among the largest number of lessons of all the companies we reviewed, along with access to live training and community learning.

Best for Learning While Trading

Bullish Bears is the best course for learning while trading because it offers an interactive, live trading and community experience that is unmatched by any of the platforms we reviewed.

Bullish Bears is a trading education platform that provides a variety of in-depth courses, along with real-time trade alerts, and a supportive community for traders of varying levels. The company’s Options Trading Course stands out as being the most comprehensive course we reviewed not just because of the wide range of topics it covers with 35 lectures, but also because of the many amenities that help bolster a student’s ability to apply what they’ve learned in a real-world setting. 

Bullish Bears stands out for its interactive learning environment. The company offers three membership bundles that give students access to a live trading room, where they can follow experienced traders, ask questions, and get feedback on their strategies. The platform also offers trade alerts, charting analysis, and an active community that fosters continuous learning. For traders who want to master options through real-world practice, Bullish Bears delivers the best live-learning experience on the market.

• Cost: Free 
• Free Trial: N/A
• Lifetime Access: Yes
• Live Instruction: No

Option Alpha is the best place for beginner options traders to learn the basics because the course content, delivered by company founder and industry veteran Kirk Du Plessis, masterfully explains the fundamentals of options trading with no cost barrier to entry. 

At its core, Option Alpha is an advanced online platform that offers automated option trading and integration with top online brokers. However, the company also provides excellent educational content on its website for free. Kirk Du Plessis, the company’s founder, guides students through a seamless progression of 14 lesson videos in a tone that eases students into wanting to become comfortable with a topic as complex as options. 

Like many of the course providers we reviewed, Option Alpha’s educational content provides a path into the company’s ecosystem of products and services. Once traders have developed a solid foundation, they can choose to progress to more advanced option-related trading courses, also for free. Beyond that, the platform provides premium services like paper trading tools, strategy backtesting, and trade automation that are essential in supporting modern-day traders on their path to success.

• Cost: $119.99 to purchase this single course, $20.00 per month for full Udemy subscription with access to over 12,000 courses, including this one  
• Free Trial: Yes
• Lifetime Access: Yes
• Live Instruction: No

On its own, Udemy’s Options Trading for Rookies is highly-rated, and one of the most comprehensive, lowest priced courses we reviewed. The added kicker is that the course can also be accessed with a $20/month Udemy subscription, which unlocks additional 12,000+ courses, including on all sorts of trading and investing products.

Instructed by Kal Zurn, one of tastylive’s original rising stars, Udemy’s Options Trading For Rookies: Understanding Options Completely is highly rated by students who have taken it. With 65 video lectures, downloadable resources, and a concluding quiz, it offers a deep dive into the key subjects needed to develop a foundation in options trading, like the fundamentals of call and put options, opening and closing positions, income-generating strategies, and more. With over 8,000 reviews and a 4.7 star rating, this course is among the highest rated trading courses offered on Udemy’s respected education platform.

Even at the full one-time retail price of $119.99, the course is the cheapest of all the paid courses we reviewed, and is great value given the comprehensive subject matter and presentation quality. But, this course is often heavily discounted and was selling for $18.99 at the time we wrote this review. The real bonus, however, comes in with the Udemy’s Personal Plan, its $20.00 per month subscription which gives access to this and over 12,000+ other premium courses, including numerous courses on trading and investing.

• Cost: Free for educational content 
• Free Trial: N/A 
• Lifetime Access: Yes
• Live Instruction: Yes

Charles Schwab is the best broker for learning options trading because it provides an unmatched combination of professionally-curated evergreen educational material and live Coaching programs, so users can understand real-world applications of what they’ve learned, for free.

Investopedia began reviewing online brokers in 2019, and Charles Schwab has consistently ranked as one of the best online brokers ever since. Schwab’s stance as an industry leader was bolstered in 2024, when the company completed the acquisition of TD Ameritrade (TDA), and, as a result, absorbed some of TDA’s strong educational assets. Schwab is now the industry-leader in investor education with evergreen, on-demand, and program-related content that spans multiple asset classes and numerous trading and investing disciplines. 

On its own, the breadth and quality of Schwab’s option-related educational content is impressive. But combined with the company’s Coaching platform–where learners can go and watch live training sessions hosted by industry professionals putting multiple trading and investing disciplines into practice for free–it can be argued that Schwab’s options education offers enough knowledge and exposure to give you a firm foundation in technical analysis without having to spend a dime. 

• Cost: Free for educational content 
• Free Trial: N/A 
• Lifetime Access: Yes
• Live Instruction: Yes

Investopedia also finds tastytrade to be another top broker for options trading education because its free educational content is professionally-crafted, all-encompassing, and practical, making it easier to comprehend some of the most complex options concepts. 

Started by two former Cboe traders, Scott Sheridan and Tom Sosnoff, tastytrade is an options-focused online brokerage that blends commission-free trading with top-tier educational content to help traders develop real-world skills. Investopedia’s choice as the best overall options trading platform, tastytrade’s educational content and live TV programming is optimized specifically for options traders of all levels. 

tastytrade’s live programming streams market analysis, trade ideas, and strategy discussions daily. This real-time content helps traders see concepts develop under real-world conditions, bridging the gap between theory and execution. This is accompanied by professionally-written evergreen content that covers the fundamentals of options trading, and a variety of structured courses tailored to beginners and those looking to master implied volatility. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced trader, tastytrade’s expert-led interactive approach provides an invaluable learning experience.

• Cost: $30 per month, multiple premium offerings also available
• Free Trial: No 
• Lifetime Access: No
• Live Instruction: No, at premium tiers only

Investopedia chose SMB Training as the best online platform for sophisticated options traders because of its breadth of videos covering complex trading strategies, including those rarely found anywhere else.

SMB Training is the professional trading education division of the New York-based proprietary trading firm SMB capital, which specializes in developing elite-level traders through structured training. The company’s entry-level education program, Options Tribe Premium, stands out as the best choice for sophisticated traders looking to master advanced strategies because students get access to hundreds of hours of video training that largely focuses on unique and sophisticated options strategies. 

For experienced traders seeking to develop into high-level options traders by receiving hands-on guidance from industry professionals, SMB Training also provides a wide selection of training packages that offer live mentoring, trade reviews, and access to proprietary trading techniques. It is noteworthy, however, that these packages can be extremely expensive and are only meant for those who are serious about trying to become successful options traders and have the time and financial resources to do so.