Daal, what's wrong with you man? I'm not picking a fight with you. YES, I agree the buy/write by DEFINITION HAS to outperform on the way down because your loss is = to strike - premium received. Even if you sold a call for a nickel it will by definition outperform. But I completely disagree with you if you think these nickels or dimes or .85 or whatever is going to provide comfort. I do agree that over LONG periods of time, the outperformance is somewhat noteworthy in a quiet mkt. But that is NOT your argument. Your argument is the FAST PANIC where the premiums just don't do anything for you. I'm sorry, they just don't.