Quote from Dolemite:
Options are deceptive, you throw up a risk graph of a straddle then look at a chart and see that the stock can easily move past the break evens and with a little luck you could have a big pay day. My story involved searching for that elusive theta positive trade that would turn the option market into an atm. All I had to do was find that adjustment or rolling technique to stay in long enough for the market to move in my favor since I thought time was on my side. I would backtest all kinds of strategies and adjustments and think that I had found the holy grail. The problem is that the market only resembles what it did in the past, there are enough differences that the adjustment that worked last time didn't work so well this time. I remember reading something similar to this years ago and thinking how I was different and I was going to find that one magical trade. To win in the options market you have to have an opinion and trade that. It can be a direction, opinion of volatility, or where a stock won't go, but you have to have an opinion. The biggest mistake I made is that I underestimated the dynamics of greeks and how volatility impacts pricing. If I had it to do over, I would read every book I could find on volatility until I understood what they said and trade a bunch of small trades over and over while keeping a journal of what happened with the market/stock and how my trade reacted.
But I will say this, if you truly enjoy trading options never give up. I quit so many times over the years but kept coming back. Contrary to opinions on this site, there are a lot of people making above market returns trading options.
