Originally Posted by john_smith

Options is like a contract where the seller of the contract commit to sell stocks (a pack of 100 stocks per contract) at a specified price, the contract itself costs pennies on the dollar, but when the stock price goes up the contract gains intrinsic value, if you multiply these pennies on the dollar x 100 (stocks) x amount raised x number of contracts, it can exponentially increase the value of your holding. You can sell the contract at any time - with the added value.

That is in a nutshell, of course that is the simplified version