It’s an unavoidable reality that anytime you place a wager in the options market, Wall Street pros — not the retail players — enjoy the house advantage. However, this advantage is embedded in the structure of risk modeling, which ironically leads to an opening for everyday traders, so long as you know how to exploit the mathematical loophole.
Without getting too deep into the technicalities, market makers price risk based on a monotonic framework. Essentially, for every unit of distance away from the current share price, the magnitude of risk increases. To use a sports analogy, layups are much easier to make than sinking three-pointers, all other things being equal.
