The stock market may have struggled over the last year but stock market options are booming. Options contracts give investors the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset like a stock at a specified price. This type of trading can be risky and speculative, and it doesn’t have a place in all investors’ portfolios. At the end of December, for instance, one measure of options activity reached a record high. Separate data analyzed by Bloomberg showed that the trade volume...

Money is not a client of any investment adviser featured on this page. The information provided on this page is for educational purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Money does not offer advisory services. More than a third of investors said they made impulsive decisions because of heightened volatility in the stock market in 2022. But that’s exactly what experts say not to do — instead, investors are supposed to stick to their plan and fight the urge to react to market...

The Biden Administration is taking the next step toward introducing a more generous student loan repayment plan that could reduce payments for millions of borrowers. The Education Department released more details about its proposed changes to income-driven student loan repayment plans on Tuesday. The changes — many of which had already been laid out by the administration — are designed to lower monthly payments for many borrowers and make a complicated program simpler and easier to...