SITE LOADED WITH OPTIONS FOR INVESTMENT STRATEGIES : ADDRESS BOOK.

Byline: Robin Lind

Feeling a little flush with cash and wondering where to invest it? Stocks? Bonds? Derivatives? Options?

You've got a treat in store if you've never visited the Chicago Board Options Exchange Web site - an abundant resource of information with links to more than 200 sub-pages packed with news, information, explanations and the obligatory warnings for the faint-hearted and weak of wallet.

(Check out the ever-popular Frequently Asked Questions for definitions that let you sprinkle your conversation with key phrases that show you can bear a little bull on your own account).

Options - in case you're wondering - are financial contracts to buy or sell shares of stock at a set price on a future date. You don't have to own stocks or bonds, you can enjoy all the fun of playing the market and only own the obligation to buy or sell.

For instance, if you think SuperGizmo Inc. shares will rise from $5 to $10 in six months you can buy 1,000 shares of stock for $5,000 and, if you're right, six months later sell them for $10,000 and pocket a $5,000 profit. However, if you only have $500 you might pay that for the option to buy 1,000 shares at the $5 share price six months from now. If you're right, you exercise the option and sell the shares for $10,000, making a profit of $4,500. You are, as they say in the market's technical jargon: ``in the money.''

Of course, you might have guessed wrong: If SuperGizmo's share price fell to $2.50 after six months you would have lost $2,500 in the first example but only $500 in the second. You are - right, you guessed it, ``out of the money.'' The difference is risk.

``Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors,'' as the disclaimer puts it. A lot of investors apparently do find options suitable. Last year more than 185 million contracts (a contract is 100 shares) were traded at the Exchange and business volume continues to grow. You don't have to trade only in specific stocks either.

If you have a hunch about an entire industry (but don't know which company will break into the lead) you can buy or sell options on an industry composite index such as automotive, oil or telecommunications.

With the introduction in late September of seven new technology indexes from the Goldman Sachs investment bank, CBOE now offers options on 35 indexes. Between April and September, Goldman Sachs' composite index of 178 technology stocks rose about 1.5 percent; the best performer was computer software: up over 6.5 percent; the worst: semiconductor index - down almost 9 percent. Hey, you win some, you lose some.

If you want to know more about CBOE you can take the Virtual Visit, listen to audio files of transactions and click on small pictures to make bigger pictures.

If you want to play with options for fun before you play with them for real, try the Options Toolbox demo - a software program that lets you set up the ``what-ifs'' types of scenarios that can make you rich (or impoverished) overnight. The actual software program costs $29.95. It's a sort of option on options. If you don't want to risk the $29.95, well, that's your option.

Chicago Board Options Exchange (http://www.cboe.com)

Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.cboe.com/intro/faq.html)

Industry Composite Index (http://www.cboe.com)

Goldman Sachs Technology Index (http://www.cboe.com:80/index/gsti/gsti. html)

Virtual Visit (http://www.cboe.com/visit/visit.html)

Toolbox Demo (http://www.cboe.com/tooldemo/)

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