Is it better to swing trade options near expiration or far from expiration?

[crgarcia]

Quote from asap:

no. do not use back month for swing trading. back month have huge vega risks which is far riskier than theta.

in addition front month trade with thinner b/a spreads which make them far better trading vehicles, expectancy wise.

if theta is a concern then an itm front month might be used, which basically provides close to 100 deltas without any gamma or vega exposure.

dont trade back month options unless you want to trade vega (option implied volatility). there is even more, especially if looking at leaps, but i wont go there, at least for now.

Trade 40-100 days from expiration.

Yes, as asap pointed out, LEAPS have huge vega risk.

 

[newguy05]

There is a difference between an option trader and a stock trader that uses options. If you are the latter, i would not recommand try to swing trade by going long using option contracts. It's a loser's game.

And a good qualifcation test whether you are an option trader or not is to search for atticus posts in this section, if you can understand 90% of what he's talking about as you read it through, then maybe

I learned enough about options to know the basic behaviors, vol and greeks so i can use it as another tool for my stock trading. But focus has always been on getting the right underlying price movements only.

 

[TraderGreg]

I'll try splitting half the number of contracts I usually buy, then splitting half that into front month and the next month. I'll track my results closely, I always do. I'm not interested in LEAPs, they just wouldn't make any sense to swing. Thanks for your help.