All well said! A couple of things based on experience:
- Trade style should match your trade personality and trade character. (Are you are day trader or swing trader/position trader?)
- Options Education (Do you understand your max risk or exposure before a trade is placed?)
- Volatility response (Matches rule 1, but you have to experience it to know how much volatility you can handle.) No paper trades
- Profitability Goal (Yes, options/trade education is important. However, if it doesn't transform to profitability then it's a total hype and/or waste of time)
- Options trading is not the holy grain of stock trading/investing. (Options trading should be one of the tools used as part of a multiple-faceted approach to investment profitability)
- Less is more (Overtrading is a real thing and it has the potential of diminishing profitability in the long run)
- Compementary trading systems help smoothen the curve. (Find two complementary systems that help smoothen the volatility curve and work out a combination or ratio that suits your investment goal)
- It's ok to pivot when necessary (Options trading isn't for everyone. It's ok to give it a try and admit if it's your thing or not.) Pivoting to a profitable system is great. Whether that's an options based system, combination of both, or not is ok.
- Stick with what works (Keep it simple. Stick to what works for you and make it the bread and butter of your system. Everyone gets that hunch to experiment, keep it nimble and in a separate account)