Calls

I have been having sporadic comms with a fellow trader who has had some success with plain calls. I am always open to debate, and my views on the subject are quite well known and I believe widely held. I don't like buying calls because as markets rise volatility drops and hence the value of the call drops. I like covered calls even less, as it is always the underlying that is a problem -you cap your profits and then let the underlying go to hell. I prefer to trade index options as you have the least headwinds.
Having said that, my current trade is a bit underwater, having sold the 3800 calls to buy 3300 puts. So the other side of this trade would have been a good winner with a market move of 200 points in its favour. My preferred strategy if selling puts, however is to buy a call spread, to negate time decay and have some trade off with volatility.
I'm also reminded that I had forgotten the difference between a simple put or call ratio spread and a backspread. Having had a problem with the former a while ago I had dismissed these as too horrible for my tastes.
A ratio spread would mean buying 1x 100 strike call and selling 2x 120 strike calls, with the expectation that the underlying won't go above 120. Of course if it goes to the moon you are in trouble as you are effectively naked 1 call, with a spread that can only ever be worth 20.
The backspread would be the reverse of this- sell 1x100 call and buy 2x120call- the most you can LOSE is 20 in this case.
You want a credit in both cases and vol skews can make this happen- and that is for another time.