Do you need to know every option strategy on this planet to make big money or try to specialize in a few of them if they have been working for you?
What you need is a decent background. After that you need to know how to choose the right strategy for the market conditions (so you need to know how to characterize the market conditions). Finally you need to know (in depth) how to use the strategies. When to enter, how to choose the right strike, how to size your bet, how to monitor the market, how often to adjust your position, how to exit. If you don't have that down, you need to start getting your ducks in a row. Read "Options as a Strategic Investment" by Lawrence McMillan. Good luck Steve
I've seen references to over 70 known strategies and I'm sure there are dozens more. Wanna try to learn them all!? Seriously, I agree with the previous poster, what you need is a solid foundation. Then you don't need to know every strategy as you can pretty much come up with your own strategy.
Crawl before you walk and definitely WALK before you try to run. Get a couple of different books from basic level to intermediate. Read them! I know a couple of options traders that really don't use anything really that complicated other than straddles, strangles and spreads. It all depends upon what you want to achieve. I'd say that more important is a good solid familiarization with the Greeks. Believe it or not, there are people that start trading options without even realizing that there are Greeks. There are also A LOT of people that are too Greek intensive for their own good as well. Many times your personality and style will determine the strategies that you find yourself using on a regular basis. Good Luck, and as always, just my .02 over the internet.
I'm going to readily admit that a while back I was one of the people that began trading options without knowing one thing about greeks. It hindered my progress for over a year. Learn the greeks, they are crucial to options trading. Once you've learned them you will develope your own style. If you don't learn them, then you will always be trying to adopt someone else's style, which will more than likely not work for you. OTOH, don't ignore the research that others have done. You'll develope many losing strategies that others have tried before you. Ask around a bit and you'll find a few that will work for you in the beginning. Most strategies are a combination of vertical/diagonal spreads, with a straddle/stangle thrown in here and there. These positions aren't successful in and of themselves. The trader makes them successful by entering/exiting correctly. Also, from someone who has been around for a little while... you need to be able to change strategy to fit the current market conditions. Good luck.