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I've been a long-time investor. Generally index funds, later picking individual stocks to supplement it, and had recently started getting interested in options to see if there was any added value to be had. I've tried a few strategies: Bull debit spreads, long calls, put spreads, LEAPs, CSPs, CCs, etc. I finally settled on LEAPs, CCs and CSPs as my core strategies. They are relatively simple, do not require extraordinary timing and support a thesis-driven investment strategy. At least, that's what I thought.
So, I started and have had pretty okay results, and some obvious misses. LEAPs that went into the dump (but they still have a lot of time left), short-term CSPs that printed premium, CCs that started bleeding. The psychological aspect of losing money in investing has never bothered me that much, but I started to notice that particularly losses on Covered Calls bothered me more than they should have, especially compared to Cash Secured Puts, which I initially did not think that different.
It only recently dawned on me. My investment strategy has generally been very thesis-driven, finding a good business that I like to buy and would be happy to hold if the thesis is intact and the business is not grossly overvalued. This works wonders with LEAPs, where I bet on the future of the company, with leverage. CSPs were easy, they are just limit buy orders at a price that I like, getting paid to wait. CCs were always the odd one out. Yes, it's basically a limit sell order, while getting paid to wait. But I generally don't like to sell my investments based on price. Rather, a combination of current valuation and outlook based on company results are what triggers my pivots.
All to say, it took me long enough to understand (and feel!) that specific option strategies are tailored better to one philosophy or the other. Any strategies that you stepped away from, based on experience?