The Advantages of Being Long
However, the market maker does not share your inclination. He wants to be market neutral; he is not payed to take any directional risks and abhors the idea of predicting anything other than volatility (I should know, I used to be one of them).
Now when you own options, you are 'gamma long'. Gamma long is pretty cool, especially for market makers. When markets move, a long gamma will always work in your favour no matter whether you own calls or puts or both. If markets are rising, you suddenly become long. If markets decline, you are suddenly short (well, not really suddenly – you can actually calculate by how much, but for argument's sake let's say that is what happens). Unfortunately, you will have to pay for that privilege by losing gradually the stored time value in your option position, the so called 'theta'.
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