NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- As of Sunday night, my NCAA tournament bracket is worth as much as the paper it is printed on as Villanova bowed out and No. 2 Kansas did not get the memo to bring their best to one of the most important games of the season.

As such, two of my Final Four teams are out and Kansas was my pick to go all the way. Such is life. I do the brackets more for fun than anything else and, hopefully, I can redeem myself in the Sweet 16 brackets that are now making the rounds.

According to an ESPN tweet, there were 11.57 million entries in the ESPN Tournament Challenge and 14 of those got all Sweet 16 teams correct. Only 14! Now I don't feel so bad. Plus, my less-than-spectacular showing made me appreciate the options market that much more. I am sure there are many ways seasoned bracket pickers and sports betters select teams and hedge their bets and, if I took the time to learn more about it, I could make a more respectable showing.

One of the greatest features in options trading is being able to trade 100% risk-controlled. It is a theme you see in every single strategy Mike recommends on Action Alerts OPTIONS. In addition to the leverage long, basic options strategies (long call, long spreads) let you know your dollar amount risk at the start. We will look at more advanced long strategies and short trading plays in future pieces, as they are more complex and add other elements of risk.

The long and the short of the comparison to my brackets is, no matter what instrument you are trading (betting on), understanding the risk inherent with the trade should always be the first factor you look at before pulling the trigger. Any professional, consistent trader will attest to that. Like I mentioned in my Quad Witch piece from last week, the educational component and learning process to trading is just as valuable, if not more so, than the trade itself.

The options market is not as isolated to the professionals and huge institutional traders as you may think. They are exploding in popularity as the retail trader has more resources and tools at their disposal than ever before. Today, options are traded on thousands of stocks, ETFs and indices, creating a better opportunity for investors to improve portfolio management and participate in a broader range of directional strategies. According to Trade Alert, in 2000, more than 700 million options contracts were traded that year. That skyrocketed to more than 4.3 billion options contracts in 2014.

My next piece will take a look at different scenarios going long stock vs. long calls and how leverage and risk/reward comes into play on capital intensive names like Google (GOOGL) - Get Report. For example. 100 GOOGL (one round lot stock) would cost roughly $56,800 at the time or writing, but options allow us to participate in higher-dollar-amount names just like the pros do.

As always, constructive feedback and questions are welcome, so I can focus on content that you care about the most. Trade well.

At the time of publication, Jill Malandrino held no positions in the stocks or issues mentioned.