Whether it's urban legend or true story, there's an old scam where a futures broker who sends out reco's to a large sample. To the half that hit, he sends out another reco. And again, another reco to the 2nd group of winners. Now he has 1/8 of the starting sample who have received 3 straight winning recommendations and he sends them a pitch for a high priced advisory service. Obviously illegal but you gotta admire the thought process. "There's a fool born every minute." - PT
AFAIK, the only edge is one's skills. It could be identifying trends, patterns, skew, momentum, discipline (not the whips kind), money management, etc. but in and of itself, there's no advantage to an option strategy, long or short. For the most part, the circumstances of the underlying is where it's at. Ya gotta bring something more to the table than cash to lose.