I’d say, based on people who truly are experts (like Tom Sosnoff), that it’s best to focus on percentage gains (or losses) rather than raw $ amounts. And although the overwhelming majority of what I do is based on being a net seller of premium in high IV percentile environments, putting a small percentage of a portfolio into speculative long option positions isn’t a bad strategy. Losses are limited and gains are infinite, with the leverage providing crazy percentage returns. That’s what you’ve seen, right?

In the post before yours, thatguy777 mentioned money management being key. And I totally agree with that. IMO, no one should be using the anomaly that 2020 is to gauge the success (or failure) of any trading strategy. But over time, backtesting various strategies can show what typical returns *should* look like. For what I do, 20% is about average. But I’ve had 40%+ years and I’ve had losing years. Part of money management is seeing what a strategy looks like from peak to trough over time.

I invest in stocks, but don’t really trade them. But if I did, I’d work to develop a long/short strategy, and probably one(s) that also included options for hedging purposes. A few months ago, I mentioned a guy that was on Chat With Traders awhile back. His interview is a good and entertaining listen. His name is Bao. He’s a little spastic, but he’s worth paying attention to - he went from a six figure engineering job to making over a million a year with not that much money starting out (upper five figure account as best I recall). But he was gaming less experienced Robinhood type traders in micro caps and the OTC markets. He grew to be a shark feeding on naive fish, as he put it. So that was his edge. My edge is selling high IV and waiting for a reversion to the mean, or IV crush after earnings announcements. Finding an edge over time is key too.

Good luck to all.