For options buyers and sellers, put simply, they’re betting on whether time will end up on their side. Buyers pay the premium to buy their way into the odds, while sellers pocket the premium to bear the risk. The time value bleeds away day by day—buyers watch Theta and feel their heart tighten, while sellers watch Gamma and get their scalp prickling.

Recently, during that wave of attention rotation in Meme coins, someone in my group used options to place a directional bet. When volatility dropped, even though the direction was right, the money was gone. Old hands keep warning people not to grab the last baton, but new folks just won’t listen. After messing around with leveraged toys a couple of times, they think they’re pros.

After running a market-making strategy for a long time, I’ve actually come to feel that sellers are more like collecting a “cognitive tax”—the things you’re sure won’t happen are exactly the things the market goes and makes happen. Anyway, I only trade positions now where I can calculate the Greeks myself. Complex as it may be, at least I know how I’ll die.