Hi everyone, first post here. I am an options trader (primarily buyer; I do not sell options except in covered calls) who trades mainly tech breakouts and the SPY. I have had decent success with my option buying strategy since I began last fall - I have since doubled my account value. Prior to trading options, I tried trading penny stocks like Tim, but honestly, was terrible at it (as you'll see if you look at my early 2017 trades). However, the risk management lessons I learned from Tim were invaluable in my options trading.

So, I'm wondering if there are any other traders here who primarily buy options? In a nutshell, my strategy is to buy options on high-cap, high-volume, in-the-news stocks that are breaking out (these are mostly tech plays lately). I also trade SPY options on a regular basis; I started out trading exclusively SPY options, but I have found my breakout stock option plays have been far more profitable over the past two months. I hold my options for one to two days; a week at most; I have learned not to keep them beyond that because time decay will destroy your profits. I also only trade ITM or ATM options with high deltas. Lastly, I keep my plays small relative to my overall account size (I have a small account, but still keep my trades to 15% or less of account size. As I continue to grow my account, that percentage will get even smaller). There are a lot of option selling strategies out there, a la Tastytrade, etc, but in my view, trading long options WITH PROPER RISK MANAGEMENT unarguably allows you to make a far larger profit, far quicker than nearly any other instrument out there.