There is a great options platform by implied volatility...

There is a great options platform by implied volatility https://optionsgame.com.au/, you can paper trade and pay around with different spreads. Its also great being able to visualize profit/loss and time decay on a graph.

Personally, buying outright positions has been hit and miss for me due to time decay. I have found my sweet spot to be 2-4 weeks from expiry, if I am seeing a possible move in the charts.
My last trade was on the 15/04, which i traded:
sold 5800 calls
bought 5900 calls
bought 5100 puts
sold 5000

Trade was for evens (no cost except for brokerage). I ended up closing the put spread for 26c ($260 a contract) on 26/04 and the call spread expired worthless last week 10c credit ($100 a contract).

I guess the thing i liked about this trade was that the market had to run up past 5800 before i would lose money, which i thought was a very low probability so risk/reward ratio was appealing.