There are two ways of making money in this business. You either need to be a damn good directional trader, or a damn good volatility trader. You'll often hear guys say things like "I don't care what the market does, I'm safe". That is not a volatility trader. People work very hard in this business forecasting future volatility and future price action. It's comical that some think you can just slap on a spread and make an adjustment here and there and make money. Yet, many of the late night infomercial groups tell you it's just that easy. You hear all the coin phrases: "I can always adjust", "I can leg into a fly", "my spreads are safe because they are DOTM", "I can only lose my debit so I'm not worried", "I have edge from my theta", etc....... And it goes on and on. You will never hear a professional trader utter these phrases. They are usually the mark of an amateur. This is a very tough business. If you are going to make it, it's because you develop into a great trader. Not because you can slap on spreads at good prices. Look at it this way. Most "professionals" in this business do not make money. The amateurs almost don't have a chance. Not saying it's impossible, some will. But the ones that do is mostly attributable to random luck.
When you talk to people who do this part time or on the side to a full time job they usually point out a lucky stock they caught or they walked into an index before a huge move quite by accident. Very seldom do you find part timers that earn consistent income month after month without adjusting for risk. In other words, are they outperforming a benchmark with the same or less risk? If they are not, they should just invest in that benchmark. If they are, then they are doing something right. But you find those people few and far between. Sooner or later, traders revert to a long term mean which is usually the benchmark. Very few can actively beat that benchmark over long periods of time. Not saying you can't make money on the side by trading part time. That's a separate issue. We are talking about outperforming a benchmark here, not just making money. There are outliers out there, but we have to discount those as in any study. Benchmark meaning something that you could invest in that produces similar returns. Many people by default use the SP 500 by default. You could use the CBOE buywrite index if you like to sell premium. There are many ETF's out there that use particular trading styles that might be similar to yours. The bottom line is, if I can invest my money in an ETF and make 10% a year without putting any labor into it, why would I want to bust my ass working long hours on top of my regular job just to make 12% a year?
Every vol trader is making a de facto directional bet whether he knows it or not. And every directional trader is making a vol bet whether he knows it or not. This is where many trader shortcomings are. This is why at the end of the day; you need to be a decent directional trader. Anyone that sells vol is making a defacto bullish bet on the market all things constant. Unless he is running a discrete dispersion strategy. If I sell front month gamma, the last thing I want is for the market to roll over hard. If I sell back month vol, the last thing I want is a hard selloff causing vols to spike. This is what it means by vol traders being an indirect directional trader. When I sell vol, it's usually because I think the markets are going higher. If I buy vol, it's usually because I think we are going to sell off. Why would I ever buy vol with a bullish market outlook? So at the end of the day, whether you are trading direction or trading vol, you are really trading direction regardless. One cannot make the argument that simply because of the wide placement of strikes that they don't care about direction.