Since the statistically expected expiring value of an option is priced-in as the time-premium, there is no advantage in buying options vs. selling them. In the end they both end up empty handed. Any combination of option positions, like verticals, butterflies, even time spreads, and of course straddles and strangles have all a long-term expectancy of zero. E.g. a fly that costs 0.50 that could expand to 5 has a probability of 1 in 10 to do so. Buying or selling 1000's of these flies over the years will statistically mean no profit (and thus a loss due to commissions). Randomly selling or buying any speculative contract, be it stocks, futures, and also options or any combinations thereof will in itself not make you any money in the long run. So, also in options trading you can only make money by predicting the future (of either actual or implied volatility) and choosing a strategy which fits this prediction. Even choosing an optimal Risk/Reward amongst the different possible combinations is almost moot, since determining the actual Risk (or Reward) is in the end the same as determining the expectancy of the combination, which is zero. This means that if you can't predict the future you won't make money, whatever strategy you use. Also, reversely, if you can predict the future, any strategy is ok; you get what you pay for.