Your OP appears to be straddles/strangles versus long calls before earnings. My reply is to go with long calls only - or puts. You can exit before earnings or after.
This company has an option backtesting that has studies for this type of question. https://tm2.cmlviz.com/login.php Bob
This is just an opinion and not a fact: In general, the option market is quite efficient, so if you do not have knowledge and just randomly buy/sell straddles/strangles or call/put you will not profit. Why do I have this opinion? I forward tested this (buying straddle/strangle and call/put prior to events) with small positions (unfortunately not statistically significant samples) and netted nothing to speak of. Intuitively, think about this: Straddle/strangle cover movements to both sides but you pay twice the premium, call/put cover only one side so you will be wrong half the time. The net result should be about the same unless I know beforehand which side it will go. Market makers, institution traders are not stupid and won't willingly hand money over to me, a small mom and pop retail trader without a fight. If you are a small mom and pop like me and want to play this game, perhaps it is better to play after earning? Anyone with opinion on this is welcome to comment. Thanks in advance.
Why is it when people see $1500 is huge sum and when your profitable it is a fixed cost of Trading? Maybe they only at first they believe in hope and dreams? I keep an education acct every year and put same amount so when there something interesting I don't think bout it. And am not picking on other anyone's post, just an opinion.
When playing earnings (buy puts only), these are some indicators I use. Its not a bread and butter way to go, because finding setups can be tough. P/B, P/S or P/E is bloated (2 out of 3 big time) earnings history shows >5% move (either way in the past 2 or 3 reports) heavily traded (got to be liquid for an easy exit) Works best with lower end of mid caps or higher end of small caps (<2B). Be careful around the big stuff (unless you have very deep pockets) And with puts, the IV is more favorable when a stock heads south. So if IV collapses after the announcement, its only for a very short time. The opposite is true for a call on a stock heading north. All the above is IMHO only.