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Better be safe than sorry...

The response I got back on Jan 12 is as follows: "So, currently the system basically uses a "trading days" style calculation only if earnings is on Monday or Tuesday and if the 'days before' number is <= 5. Otherwise the system uses calendar days. These earnings events are on Wednesday. Since the trade can't open on a Saturday or Sunday, the first day that is <= 3 days before earnings is Monday. Then, Tuesday is the day before earnings, so, you are just seeing 1 trading day instead of 2. For this stock, you can simply increase the days before earnings if you want to force it to open on Friday. That said, we do have plans in the works to create a true trading days calculations that always opens and closes the correct number of days before or after earnings, irrespective of day of week, and that is also "holiday aware". We're hoping to have that out within about 4 weeks." I understand their example to mean that a Wed earnings means Calendar Days are used. But since 3 calendar days before Wed would be Sunday- a non trading day -- then the trade is moved to Monday.

@drcruzTo really get to know the ins and outs of the hedged straddle trade, neither of these is that important IMO. What is important is... Straddle RV charts (volatilityHQ or artoftrading). Seeing the standard rate of RV decline to determine (in the absence of gamma) if short strangle sales will cover the typical RV decline. Standard IV charts (ivolatility.com is one place, but you can get these many places). To classify a stock as low, medium or high IV. The lower the IV, the higher long to short ratio you can use (but never above 2:1). Past earnings history of implied move and post-earnings move (optionslam, marketchameleon). See RV levels on earnings day for prior cycles, pay attention to the previous cycles as large moves beyond the implied (or minimal movement) can set an expectation for the current cycle. All hedged straddles can make money if they stock price moves, but with many stocks the short strangles will not compensate for RV decline if you don't get that stock price move. So, you try to pick candidates where you don't NEED the stock price movement to avoid losses.