cashclay:
There is specific information and then there is general information about option trading. What typically occurs in a learning process is to try to grasp the "general" before understanding the "specific" information. You may find it worthwhile to form your theory for "general", then begin looking at some "specifics" to see how your general information holds up.
Since you are on the steep end of the "learning" curve about options, it may be helpful to focus on a specific well defined idea, and work it thru, rather than generalizing too much. The reason I say this, is all traders are different (very different) and have many differing factors influencing their trading, and concepts of what is "acceptable" to them. No-one will know yours, but you. Responses received on this forum, have a very heavy bias from the perspective of the individual responding, (which may not be your perspective).
Options provide a vast range of variations to exploit (or get exploited) by the market. It will take some time, and for some of us, a lot of effort, to gain sufficient understanding to form consistent and profitable trading from them.
Regarding your question: I think you are considering "day trading" using options. If this is correct, slippage (bid/ask spread) may eat your lunch. If you do not adequately consider liquidity, you may loose more than your lunch. When using options for short term trades, I prefer to "buy" the option, rather than "sell" the option, so my RISK is defined at entry. You can then use calls or puts, depenging on your directional bias. Note the option strike's Delta to get an idea of how it should move with the price of the underlying during your short term holding period. (there are other factors as well -- DTE if too short can be too much excitement, volatility change during your holding interval can make you smile or cry, etc)
Pardon the book: If helpful, good, if not discard.
