[andrew15]

Options are pretty interesting - with different strategies, you can make them as risky (or risk adverse) as you want. The strategy that your advisor in recommending looks like this:
- Own a stock that you think will go up in the long run, but if it goes down you would be comfortable buying more.
- Sell puts - would allow the buyer of the put to sell you x # of shares from you at a set price within a set timeframe.
- Sell calls - Would allow the buyer of the call to buy x # of shares from you at a set price within a set timeframe.

Basically with this strategy, you would have already said if the stock goes up really high in a 90 day period, you would sell and if it went down a lot you would buy. Selling options with those prices attached means you collect a small premium for sticking to your original plan.

It's not a bad strategy and it's not particularily risky. That said - if you don't understand the ins and outs of options, it may not be the right strategy for you and your situation.

Options are great when used in the right situation - they can be a speculative instrument or be used to protect existing gains or hedge a loss.

I used to work for a full service brokerage firm up here in Canada and even though I was options licensed, I wouldn't use them with clients - too much room for misunderstanding as noted by some of the comments above.