Educational only, not financial advice or a strategy recommendation. Options strategies carry risk, including of substantial loss. NoVo trades long single options; the strategies here are explained for understanding, not endorsed.
Buying premium (long options) profits from big moves with defined risk; selling premium (short options/spreads) profits from time decay with a high win rate but larger losses. They’re opposite games.
Buying premium
You pay for options and profit if the underlying moves enough in your favor. Pros: defined risk (max loss = premium), big upside, simple. Cons: you fight decay and need a real move — lower win rate, since many options expire worthless. It’s a bet on movement. This is NoVo’s approach: directional long options for scalps.
Selling premium
You sell options and profit from decay if the underlying doesn’t move much. Pros: high win rate, theta works for you, profits in range-bound markets. Cons: reward is capped, losses are larger (and undefined if naked), plus assignment risk — one bad move can erase many wins. It’s a bet on stillness.
Buyers win rarely but big and know their max loss; sellers win often but small and risk larger losses. Opposite win rates, opposite risk shapes.
Which NoVo chose
NoVo buys premium — directional, defined-risk long options — because for leveraged 0DTE scalping, a known, capped max loss and clean directional exposure fit the strategy. Selling premium is a legitimate, different discipline with a very different risk profile (its risks). Neither is “better” universally; they’re different bets.