Before that I only had level I clearance which allowed me to trade long and covered short options, but not to create spreads.
I intend to start bullish spreads on two positions I already have, WDC
and TRAD and maybe use the proceeds from the short positions (the longs are already open) to open a new long in BBBB or my two favorites CRM and/or PRAA
I believe that options should be used by even conservative investors, selling a put against your long stock position in one company is a great way to generate income, plus if you sell out of the money you likely won't have to sell (but you reduce your income potential from the premium)
As I don't have enough shares of most of my holdings to cover the 100 included in one option contract, I wrote just one covered call so far (for Akamai AKAM) but I'm even tempted to load up some position just to be able to write calls.
Besides investing in options for the underlying securities, trading options offers far more volatility for a quick bang (or a quick loss) with lots of leverage and limited risk.
If you don't want to invest in options, you should at least pay attention to the option market for it denotes the confidence level in one particular stock. www.scaheffersresearch.com shows Put/Call ratio that often lead to identifying great opportunity.
