So, I’ve been trying to learn more about options since I want to start getting into them and buying some

So far, what I’ve seen and understand is that you buy a contract that has 100 shares of a “certain company” for a lowered price.

You can predict the price will go up (a call) or down (a put), but usually “puts” are very risky compared to “calls.”

You can buy contracts for 1 day, 1 week, months, or years before they expire and can sell any time during that timeframe (so if you buy a contract for 2 months, you can sell it after 3 weeks in or buy a contract for 2 years and you decide to sell it a year in)

If you’re making a profit in those contracts, you’re “in the money,” but if not, you’re “out of the money” (or something like that).

So far, that’s what I understand (please correct me if I’m wrong or if there’s more to add, which I’m sure there is).

I do have some questions though.

Why are options so cheap (from what I’ve seen, a share can be $110 for example, and in the contract it will be $10 or $15?)?

So if the asking price is $10 and the share alone is $110, I’m guessing they’re asking $10 per share which means the contract would be $1,000, yeah?

Aren’t these people selling the contract losing money if they’re selling 100 shares for cheaper than a share goes?

If the contract is going to expire, can you still keep the shares and hold onto them for whenever you decide to sell in the future?

I’m pretty slow, so if you could ELI5, that’d be helpful!