I started keeping track of who I’m really betting against every time I buy or sell options: the buyer loves it because when volatility shows up, they win—yet most of the time it’s the time value that slowly grinds you down. The seller watches the premium roll in and thinks that feels great, but actually they’re collecting a “tax for other people not moving”; once things really start to move, it’s your turn to pay tuition. Plain and simple, time doesn’t take sides—it just keeps deducting, and who it deducts from depends on which side you’re on and whether your position can hold up. Recently I’ve been seeing social mining and fan tokens touting “attention is mining,” and my first reaction was: isn’t this just dressing up the time value in a new outfit and then feeding it to the buyer…? Anyway, I’ll first make sure I remember clearly who is eating me up, and then we’ll talk about faith.