Author tested straddle strategy (simultaneous long call and put at same strike/expiry) on earnings plays for META, MSFT, GOOG, and ROKU, finding that stocks must move beyond inflated implied volatility breakevens (5.7%-14.3%) post-earnings to profit. Key risk: IV crush and theta decay make earnings option betting worse odds than a coin flip unless price movement significantly exceeds Black-Scholes calculated thresholds.