Are options inherently a short-term trade?

Everything.

 

I follow Ron Bertino of Trading Dominion and I've tweaked his base trade to where I enter a position from 90 to 180 DTE. It back tests well

 

He must be good. In all my career I never met someone who has created their own original hedge strategy out of existing vanilla option contracts.

and...

"Ron designed as a downside hedge to a trader’s at-the-money market neutral options strategies."

Hedges against strategies that are market neutral... priceless.

 

So you put stops on debit spreads? Can you give me an example please?

Cheers!

 

Nothing wrong, he hedges against his market neutral options strategies, just in case they don't work.

 

Ah, no. The stop is already inherent in the spread.

 

Why is this priceless? And BTW it's true. If you're controlling the T-0 line why is this not true?

 

Buying or selling a 1-month option is inherently a short-term trade, but a regularly selling 1-month ATM straddles on the S&P 500 to harvest the volatility risk premium could be considered a long-term investment strategy. I am not saying it is a good or bad strategy.

The long term is just the sum of short terms.

 

You said you put stops on everything, including debit spreads? Maybe I misinterpreted your post.

 

I agree but I'm not talking about selling 1-month ATM Straddles. I'm talking about buying/selling far out in the term structure, maybe 6 months to a year out.