These past few days, I saw that options game again, where the buyer and seller are basically betting on who has the time advantage. If you're the buyer, even if your direction is correct, you need to act before the time value completely eats you up; the market drags on, and even if there's no reversal, your position still slowly shrinks. Being the seller is like collecting rent; the time value drops into your pocket every day, but you're silently bearing tail risk. When a big wave hits, the "rent" you've accumulated could be wiped out instantly, including the principal and interest.

Suddenly, I thought of the NFT royalty debate, which is also quite similar—creators want continuous cash flow, but the secondary market complains that "taxes" affect liquidity. Time, liquidity, and who bears uncertainty all circle back to one question: are you willing to pay for certainty, or are you willing to take on risk to earn that small time advantage? Anyway, right now I care more about which type of risk I’m bearing—don’t become someone else’s time value ATM without realizing it.