options trading is far from easy in fact one of the hardest bec of all the greeks intermingling w / each other- BUT once understood makes trading more interesting for you can predict only some elements of price action (direction, magnitude, distribution,etc) and tilt the odds towards profitable trades- Lyle is correct, you can finance the long put with a short call sale which somewhat isolates you from implied volatility contraction post earnings , or as he said sell a back month put which will do great when IV collapses BUT your margins will be big since brokers treat back months as naked puts. Here is what I would suggest going forward- borrow option 101 books from local library , go to TOSwim , Option Alpha, CBOE sites ... there are TONS there..Open account w/ TOs to get their on-demand backtester, you might have to initially use a per share broker to eliminate ticket charges of current broker. This way when u go live, you are paying $1/trade not $10/ticket. (don't know how much CScwab charges lately)
Schwab has a real time website call streetsmartedge, you can log in once you log into your Schwab account. You can also link to OptionsXpress through Schwab. There are quite a bit of information on options on their website, you can also practice demo trades using streetsmartedge. And, if you are a high volume trader, you can get significant discount on commissions from them, just make sure you ask when you reach that stage for they won't offer it unless you ask. I hope you will find trading options fun and profitable. There are so many ways to make and lose money and the combinations are astronomical. Some argued for shorting calls and puts, some for long calls and puts, some for combinations, some directional some volatility.... And they are all correct! However, as derivatives, they are essentially a zero sum game minus commissions and slippages. If you make money, your counter party will likely loses money. To me, options are all about probabilities so some knowledge of math/statistics is helpful. Another point, until I understood how they were priced, I was not able to make significant inroad, so perhaps you could start by doing the same. The book I found most helpful was Larry McMillan's "Options as a Strategic Investment". I even bought a study guide for the book. Hope you will find success.
I'll probably attract some snarky comments for suggesting this, but checkout tastytrade.com. They explain the basics of options and the greeks have a good simulator (dough) that you can play around with. I still think TOS is the best public platform for options analysis and backtesting. For backtesting, I don't know of any other free solution available to the public that comes close.