It is OK, he was right, I deserved it. Can't learn anything new if I have thin skin and keep my mouth shut.
You have a good point about @raVar. He started out on non-correlated trades and talked about periodicity which were excellent topics that I struggled with for a long time. But I am too dumb because I could not understand half of what he was talking about. As for your second point, some of us who trade directional, have a strong opinion on the direction, vol contraction may be a good thing? Because often when the underlying goes up steadily, like in a bull run, vol contracts. In that situation, convexity is my friend and volatility be damned. Third, if you trade single leg options on the long side, the best stop may be your premium? Why put stop on stop? So I don't understand BW's problem. Of course I am just an amateur retail, most of the time the pros here laughed at what I wrote. I am like @raVar, don't make sense to them.
Ravar says things which defy the laws of options and then throws out nice fancy terms as a distraction. Non correlated assets,periodicity,teaching spreads before single legs??? Keep it simple...You bring up trading directionally and vol contraction being a good thing. What does having a strong opinion on direction and vol contraction tell you??? It's not complicated..Trade with a directional bias,be short vol,and do not let your gamma bite you in the butt...(turn a long into a short) Great point about options and stops..imho,part of the extrinsic value is the built in stop.But if you trade directionally,you know that there Are many approaches to stops and options. It can be a punt where the option premium is the stop.It could be the stock price triggers the sale of the option.It could be a time stop.Until you run a simulation of your strategy and have some idea of Profit Factor,MAE,MFE etc,it's simply one persons opinion.. Elaborate how convexity is your friend in a Bull market..
1. If I am lucky and my directional guess is correct, my gain is nonlinear. 2. Buying option is like buy a ticket for an amusement ride, why get off the ride before it ends? If I am winning and stay till the end, less vol near the end is better? Please correct me if my rationale is flawed. Best to you.
#2???? Because the Dynamics change. Always - is this good from here. Do I like it at this moment, here!
I know it is stupid, not supported by math or analysis. I just don't like to "waste" my purchase, after all, I don't buy mechanically, each purchase is precious.
After thinking about what you said, you are absolutely correct, mine rationale was based on emotion, not logic. Thank you for the coaching.
"Non correlated" as used by the ravar dude is just silly. SPY and QQQ are correlated. "Periodicity" is not used to denote duration in trading. Go define the term. I really don't care who wins or loses. It's more a pride of authorship for anyone here who is experienced to not allow complete fantasy to remain unchallenged.