Please let me know if my trading strategy is viable. I am only trading straddles (long put and call at the same time) on employment number days. I believe the delta of the options delta (for puts and calls) is the profit of the straddle and there is no way to lose money in long run. Please let me know the upsides and downsides of my trading strategy. Is it viable to continue trading this way?
This is your fail right here, the thread title... "No way to lose money trading in options" You have already lost the battle you did not know you were fighting. "...and there is no way to lose money in long run." If that were true, nobody would lose money, ever. I don't even need to know about options to see the folly. Now if @PoopyDeek would simply unignore me, I could see his responses to this query without me having to go into anon mode. :-\
Huh, what? You buy a straddle and hold across the NFP day. If the market moves more than what you paid, you make money. If the market moves less than what you paid for it, you lose money. No magic.
I think OP is talking about selling straddles with the idea being that IV is high enough to smooth out any real moves.
Okay, enough of a climb or drop will get that side to profit and cover the cost of the other side, so no issue there. Say $20 stock, you buy $22 Calls and $18 Puts say $2 each, you need a move to $26 or $14 to break even by the expiry or short term you might get a boost if it moves quick enough. Anywhere between the $18 and $22 value, then you lose 100% at expiry ofcourse.
Upside is if the underlying stock moves a huge amount, say $20 in either way, you will make monies net the cost of both options premiums. If the stock moves in a trading range and not a huge amount, you now have two losing options positions to close. You lose on both the call option and put option and have the potential to lose substantial amounts of monies in the shortest possible time.