The more highly leveraged a product is, the greater the risk, and options are at the very highest end of the leverage spectrum.

Property in SG, might be a shrewd and straight-forward investment but it requires high initial capital that not everyone may have access to and there are many barriers to entry, while options are highly liquid and easily tradeable.

They were invented to hedge large long exposures, then evolved to take speculative positions, and now to the frenzied approach of "easy money" we have today. Quick returns are great, but not so easy to sustain in this volatile environment. The Black-Scholes option pricing model is not able to price in forward looking volatility and investor irrationality!

If you are a serial gambler and cannot help yourself taking a punt, do cash equities instead... you risk relatively less.