Identifying a possible option strategy

[Corto]

Lol. Answer below question first

MarkBrown said:
what do you hope to gain by trading options in the first place?

Become conversant with the jargon to impress at cocktail parties.

 

[ironchef]

Still waiting for someone on this forum to provide more details on strategies worth pursuing, but all I keep seeing is far from it. Plenty of time and effort is spent on disagreeing with each other which in itself brings no harm as long as some positives can be identified.

You have to know where to look and how to read between the lines. In other words, we have to work hard for it. No one here willingly hands out his/her winning recipe on a platter.

(a) stuff that works is difficult to find and stuff that is known to everyone stops working
(b) because of (a) nobody in the right mind would share anything beyond truisms
(c) due to (a) and (b), be afraid of any pearls of wisdom that are shared voluntarily
(d) to avoid (a), (b) and (c), find an experienced vol trader and waterboard him/her

Actually more than truisms, there are enough bits and pieces we retail newbies can pick up but we have to know how to string them together for a winning strategy. Besides, the USG ban waterboard as an interrogation strategy?

 

[qlai]

Guys, I am going to state my current opinion here and I hope you provide some good points as to why it's wrong/ignorant.

Options market was created for hedging (just like Futures market). It is not suitable for retail traders with below exceptions:
1 You have a small account and you want leverage.
2 You want to hedge(and/or juice up returns a bit).
3 You want (and earned the right) to do lottery trades.
4 You have insider info.
5 You want to impress at cocktail parties!

Thoughts?