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Mar 3 / The BALD BULL

#25 STOP Buying Cheap Options – The Market Maker is Mugging You!

🚨 Stop Buying Cheap Options – The Market Maker is Mugging You! 🚨 Think snagging a dirt-cheap option is your ticket to riches? Think again. The market maker is laughing all the way to the bank while your “bargain” contract melts faster than ice cream in July. Theta decay, the Insurance Effect, and a rigged game are working against you. Want to trade like a wolf instead of market prey? Read on before your next trade becomes a donation. 🔥

So, you just discovered options trading.

Congrats!

You’ve unlocked a world where you can turn a small fortune into… an even smaller fortune if you don’t know what you’re doing.

And what’s the first thing new traders do?

💡 They buy the cheapest options they can find.

Because why buy a $5 option when you can YOLO a $0.50 lotto ticket and dream of turning it into a Lamborghini by Friday?

I get it.

It’s cheap.

It’s exciting.

It’s got that “What if?” magic.

But here’s the brutal truth:

Buying cheap options is like buying expired lottery tickets. The numbers are pretty, but you’re not cashing in anything.

And guess who LOVES when you buy those dirt-cheap, out-of-the-money (OTM) options?

The Market Maker.

This guy doesn’t wear a ski mask, but he’s robbing you blind.

Time to get you profitable, and knowledgeable, and stop trading worthless lottery tickets!

Market makers are like insurance companies. They sell you a dream and collect premiums from suckers who think it’ll pay out.

Here’s how it works:

✅ You buy a cheap, OTM option for $0.50.

✅ The market doesn’t move enough.

✅ Theta Decay melts your premium like ice cream in the desert.
( see terms below )

✅ Expiration day arrives, and your option is now worth $0.00.

✅ Market maker keeps your money, pats himself on the back, and takes his yacht out for a ride.

You?

You’re sitting there wondering how you went from “future millionaire” to “why did I do that again?” in 48 hours.

This is The Insurance Effect in action:

You’re paying a small premium for a chance to cash in big.

The market maker is the insurance company happily collecting from thousands of traders just like you.

90% of the time, your cheap option expires worthless, and the Market Maker wins.

And guess what?

Those "cheap options" were designed to take your money!

You think you have until expiration to cash in?

Ha!

Let me introduce you to Theta Decay, the silent assassin of cheap options.

🎯 The closer you get to expiration, the faster your option loses value.

🎯 The cheaper the option, the more of its price is pure time value, which means theta decay hits harder and faster.

🎯 By the time you’re ready to sell, your option is worth about as much as a McChicken sandwich.

And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather just buy the McChicken and move on with my life.

1. Over 80% of all options expire worthless.

Most cheap, out-of-the-money (OTM) options never reach profitability, leaving buyers with total losses. (Source: Chicago Board Options Exchange - CBOE)

2. Market makers profit from options trading 97% of the time.

They set the bid-ask spreads and adjust pricing so that most cheap options decay to zero while they pocket the premium. (Source: Institutional Trading Data)

3. Implied volatility (IV) crush can wipe out 50%–70% of an option’s value overnight.

Traders who buy cheap options before earnings often lose big when volatility collapses after the event.
(Source: Options Research & Backtesting Studies)

4. Only 10% of retail traders consistently profit from options trading.

The other 90% are losing money, often due to poor risk management, cheap options bets, and not understanding market mechanics.
(Source: Multiple Broker Studies)

5. Retail traders lose an estimated 90% of their capital within the first year of options trading.

Cheap options attract new traders, but the high failure rate suggests they are more of a "donation" to market makers.
(Source: Tastytrade Research)

Want to trade options like a pro instead of being free lunch for the market makers? Follow these golden rules:

🔴 Stop buying the cheapest options on the chain.

If it looks too good to be true, it is.
Cheap means low probability of winning—the odds are against you.

🟢 Buy options with a fighting chance. ( 50-70 Delta + TIME)

At-the-money (ATM) or slightly in-the-money (ITM) contracts give you real value and don’t melt the moment you buy them.
They cost more, but you actually have a shot at making money.
Give yourself more time than the expected move.
> For intraday trades, buy options with 5–7 days until expiration to allow for flexibility.
> For multi-day trades, buy options with 5–7 months until expiration to reduce time decay and maximize potential gains.

🔴 Respect theta decay.

If you’re buying options with only a few days left, you better have an exit plan.
Options lose 30-50% of their value in the last week.

🟢 Sell to the suckers instead.

Want to make money from theta decay instead of getting wrecked by it?
Sell OTM options to gamblers instead of being the gambler.
Congratulations, you’ve just become the market maker’s business partner.

Delta measures how much an option’s price moves when the stock price changes.

If an option has a delta of 0.50, the option price will move $0.50 for every $1 move in the stock.
Call options have positive delta (they go up when the stock goes up).
Put options have negative delta (they go up when the stock goes down).

Think of delta like a gas pedal:

Higher delta = Faster price movement.
Lower delta = Slower price movement.

Delta also tells you the probability an option will end in the money (e.g., a 0.30 delta means a ~30% chance).

Traders who buy cheap options are the fresh meat the market feasts on. You think you’re getting a deal, but really, you’re donating money to the market makers so they can buy another vacation home.

If you’re going to take risk, make the risk worth your while.

Don’t buy garbage.
Don’t buy dreams.
Buy value.

💰 Smart traders buy good setups, not cheap bets.

💰 Smart traders always trade with a pre-defined stop loss % BEFORE they enter the trade.

💰 The market doesn’t reward "cheap" – it rewards "strategic".

Let’s be real—how much longer are you going to stay stuck trying to figure it out? Watching another YouTube video won’t make you a profitable trader!

Stop the struggle:
❌ Wasting money on risky trades that blow up your account?
❌ Thinking cheap options mean "easy money"—while the market takes yours?
❌ Hoping for luck instead of learning a real strategy?

When is your when?

When will you finally decide that your time, your freedom, and your financial future are worth more than guessing and gambling?

✅ You don’t need a huge account to trade options profitably.
✅ You don’t need to gamble on risky plays.
✅ You just need the right knowledge and right trading system to turn the RIGHT options into big profits.

Learn how to trade options the right way—without blowing up your account.

Join Time Freedom Trading today and master a system that works.

👉 Your time is now.

Your freedom is waiting.

Let’s get to work. 💰🔥

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#25 STOP Buying Cheap Options – The Market Maker is Mugging You!