Naked option buying works !!! Only if one buys and holds it till expiry it looses all the time value in price. But that is not what profitable option buyers do.
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Those who trade intraday breakouts and momentum get in and out quickly. The time value loss is negligible or non existent.
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Those who are trend followers like me turn time value loss in to an advantage. Trend follower accuracy is less than 50%. Everytime we lost, we lost less because of the time value cushion in the option premium. As we lose more than we win, theta decay incurred in a winning trade gets counter balanced by lesser losses in the losing trades. Also if one is a positional trader option buying caps max loss when market gaps against the position held.
Besides in general anytime, anything can happen in the market. Long options inherently limits the max risk.
Trading is a simple game of chance, associated risk-reward and capital adequacy. When trading (option buyer or seller) one has to keep adequate capital for the system (Capital is not the amount deployed for one trade. Its that amount that will allow one to trade the system over a fair amount of time and which can absorb system drawdowns comfortably for a certain position size.)