I look at that question more deeply in an article I recently published below. If you are are a more short term trader, then by all means option credit spreads may be a better strategy than going long a stock. I say this because, it is pretty easy turn around profits quick as you are using the decaying factor of options to help you. This can work in your favor especially if you are good at spotting short term underlying trends.
These vehicles are lovely 3 week trades when you are confident of an underlying trend. This is the advantage of options sometimes over stock trading. If your stock than you took out the option credit spread on basically goes nowhere, you will still get to pocket money from the credit you initially get. Covered calls is a similar strategy but to sell covered calls, you must first own the stock. You don’t have to own the stock with option credit spreads. You merely sell a option which is more valuable than the option you also buy in the same transaction. This gives you downside protection in the event of your trade going against you.
You can read the full article here on Option Credit Spreads
How To Use Option Credit Spreads
