Damn, I got harvested by time value again. As an options buyer, what this comes down to is essentially a duel with time—you’re buying volatility, but time keeps chewing up your option premium every day. Meanwhile, the seller just lies back and collects the time value. As long as there’s no black-swan explosion, it’s steady—like collecting rent. Recently, some region’s nonsense about adding taxes has messed with people’s expectations for inflows and outflows. I originally wanted to go in on an event-driven move, but I found volatility gets hit first, beaten down by time value. So I just placed orders and waited for the seller to reload. Anyway, I’m one of those fast-handed day traders—I cut quickly—but every time I see how fast the option calendar spread decays, I still can’t help but want to curse: I treated “simplicity” like a trap. Seriously, I’m impressed.