[brownsfan019]

I think James is right in terms of this being a straddle. It's been a few years since I traded options.

This makes sense Reav playing around volatility - esp earnings. Basically you are saying I think this is going up big or down big, I don't know which one, so I'll own a call and put and as long as prices moves, one will be worth quite a bit and one will be worthless.

From there, the key is knowing when to liquidate the winner. If playing earnings and volatility, you need some good timing on the exits - sometimes you need to exit right after the announcement and other times you could hold for weeks.

The straddle is a fairly simple strategy and you'd do well to paper trade it first. One piece of advice with options - you now have market makers involved. And it's not as simple as just saying - go long. You have to find the right option at the right price with good Greeks, etc. etc. Long story short - you can buy a call and the price of the stock goes up and you still lose money. Talk about being slapped around. All of your analysis could be correct and you'd still lose money due to implied volatility, etc. It takes a lot of work to take on an options position in my opinion.