Recently, I was drawing that little “time value funnel” diagram for options, and the more I stared at it, the more it looked like this: the buyer pays “rent” every day, and the seller collects rent every day… but it’s not free. If the market suddenly jerks around, the seller may spit back all the rent they collected earlier in one go—and they might even have to add money on top. Basically, time value mainly “feeds on” the person who “didn’t wait for volatility,” especially when you’re watching the unlock calendar while also being afraid of missing a rebound, you buy some protection, and then the market just goes sideways—the anxiety gets ground down little by little by time.

On the flip side, the seller shouldn’t get too complacent either: once that unlocking expectation is truly amplified, and Gamma really kicks in, before you know it, what you thought you were just “holding on” turns into a hard fight against sell pressure. Anyway, right now I care more about whether I’m actually buying volatility, or just buying some peace of mind… I’ll keep watching.