Selling a put is very much like owning stock, except for one huge difference. When I sell a naked put in AAPL for 1.00, if I win, I make a dollar. If I lose, I could lose 20 dollars. If I buy the stock, I could also lose 20 dollars, but I could make an infinite amount of money. This is what people simply don't get. If you want to make money in this business over the long run, you need to have big winners, even if they come merely by luck. Because every trader is going to have their fair share of hits. Taking an unlimited amount of risk for .50 or 1.00 or some finite amount is not going to add up over the long run. This is why a good stock trader will kill a good option seller over the long run. Same is true for selling naked calls with the exception that a stock can only go to zero, so the short stock seller actually has a finite return, albeit, usually a very large one.