Wrote this up in answer to a discussion on another forum.
From the link;
There are only three things that can happen if a trader BUYS an option – the option goes the trader’s way, the option goes against the trader, the option goes sideways losing on time decay.
Two out of the three are bad for the option buyer.
So is it a fool’s game?
Doesn’t have to be. Not for day traders.
At the time of writing, up $20k on $25k in trades.
For the discussion and a chart:
CALLING ALL SPYs
Why sweat so much with an insrument which has time decay, implied volatility implosion etc ? You might avoid the time decay to certain extent by deep in the money. But how will you avoid implied volatility implosion ? Options are very inefficient instruments for directional trading.
Just trade the e-mini futures. You get the same leverage and it's much more efficient, i.e lesser slippages and lesser bid/ask spread. Don't have to worry about decay or implied volatility.
Edited by NAV, 04 November 2017 - 05:04 AM.