Options are deffinatly interesting, and as you say a good way to gain leverage on a position. While Pauls friend will be able to answer direct questions and more in depth, some places you might find useful are (might already have seen it though)
http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/OptionsInstitute1.aspx
http://www.cboe.com/LearnCenter/RCTools.aspx
(Chicago Board Options Exchange, number of tutorials, online seminars, strategy examples and pricing tools)
http://www.riskglossary.com/link/black_scholes_1973.htm
http://bradley.bradley.edu/~arr/bsm/pg04.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-Scholes
(Explains the Black-Scholes Pricing Formula)