stinkypants

Yes, I should have clarified that the sub-optimal trades I was referring to included the stock positions that went with the options orders.

I read that market makers on the NYSE are given special privileges, but on the NASDAQ they are not. Does anyone know why they bother getting involved in profitable but sub-optimal trades (such as on the opposite side of SteadyOptions trades) when one would expect they have the sophistication to do what Kim and company are doing here?

I appreciate the prodding but I have no problem with working hard. The responses I've received here, which I'm grateful for, suggest that much of making money in options is just a reliance on less-skilled investors to take advantage of.

I'll try to be less vague. I have very little knowledge about options and who's in the market for them. Do you imagine that the people who buy and sell the options you sell and buy typically have less skill or knowledge than you, and they wouldn't be doing so if they knew better? Or, do they have different but still reasonable goals? Thank you.

Russell Stultz says, in The Only Options Trading Book You'll Ever Need, "Professional traders make their living by taking money from "novice" traders. ... It's the amateur traders who feed the professional traders. And until they are educated about market dynamics, chart analysis, and statistical probabilities, they will continue to feed the professionals. Professionals need and rely on the amateurs." Is this true?