Lately I’ve been a bit too glued to the options order book, and it suddenly made me realize something: time value, to put it plainly, is the buyer paying the seller a “chronic protection fee.” You buy calls or puts thinking you’re betting on direction, but every day theta quietly picks your pocket. Meanwhile the seller—so long as the underlying doesn’t blow up—can just lie back and collect rent, and honestly it’s pretty tempting.

Recently, when funding rates got ridiculously extreme—there was a big argument in the community. Some people said it was a sign of an impending reversal, while others felt it was squeezing out the last bit of froth. I looked through the position data for a few projects, and it felt like once sentiment turns one-sided, option sellers are usually calmer than buyers—because once volatility spikes, they can actually sell at higher prices.

If you ask me, next time I run into a situation like this, I might try to set up with some seller positioning and collect some time value as protection. But I can’t really say how to call the direction—when the market goes crazy, any logic might fail.

What about you? When funding rates get extreme, are you more inclined to gamble as the buyer, or to have the seller steadily collect rent?