Once you've called direction, you still have to pick a strike, and it changes everything about how the trade behaves. The choice is a trade-off between responsiveness and cost.

The spectrum

At-the-money (ATM) options have the highest delta among cheap strikes and the most gamma, so they move fast with SPY — but they cost more and bleed the most theta. Far out-of-the-money (OTM) options are cheap, but with a low delta they barely move unless SPY makes a big, fast run — and most days it won't. Deep in-the-money is the other extreme: steady but capital-heavy (see deep-ITM options).

Where scalpers land

For a fast 0DTE scalp, most traders sit near the money — at-the-money to a strike or two out. That's enough delta for the option to actually respond to a level-to-level move, without paying the full ATM premium. The far-OTM “cheap lottery ticket” is where beginners quietly lose: it feels affordable, but the odds and the delta are both against it.

Cheap isn't the same as good value. A far-OTM strike needs a move most sessions never make; a near-money strike gets paid on the move that actually happens.

Frame it against the move

Anchor the choice to the realistic expected move and the distance to the next dealer level. If your target is a level $2 away, pick a strike responsive enough to profit on that $2 — not one that needs $6. A cleaner, repeatable way to do this is selecting by delta rather than by price, which is exactly how NoVo picks the strike for you once you set the direction.