One way to keep option trading simple is to buy LEAPS or Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities. These are options with expiration dates longer than a year. You can buy LEAPS today that will expire in 2014 or even 2015. Buying LEAPS are much cheaper than buying stocks. With Theta being nearly zero you don’t have to worry about time decay. If Delta is close to one in other words the LEAPS is deep in-the-money the option price will change just like the stock price. Sometimes you can even find LEAPS where the option price is not much higher than the price for an option with shorter term expiration.
Buying LEAPS is much safer than buying options with shorter expiration dates. The profit might be a little less but LEAPS are still leveraged instruments. For example you can buy LEAPS 60% cheaper than the stock and if the stock moves 10% you can make 30% profit.