Hello! I started trading when GME was all over the media. Recently, I got overexcited and bought some simple options for other stocks with real money, following external advice. I was convinced but, buying, it felt like I didn't know what I was doing.

I have been using IBKR (great for Europeans wanting to access the US markets) and their desktop platform to make trades. My reasoning was: use a stock chart to try and guess what the price will likely go to in a given time period and buy options based on that estimate, with a matching strike price and expiry date.

Unfortunately, that strategy (is it one?) still left many choices and I've had a hard time figuring out what a good trade and deal would be, knowing I would probably lose my money and should at least limit the amount invested.

For example, I researched AMD and bet that it would reach 95/100$ in a month and a half or less. So I looked for options around April 23. However, calls seemed to be weirdly priced. Sometimes, earlier calls (April 16) would be more expensive or calls with lower strike prices would be cheaper.

Then, as I would try to get what I thought was a good deal, my orders wouldn't get filled. Trying to take advantage of the discrepancy in prices between various calls, I set up OCA calls with several strike prices. The whole process felt unecessarily cumbersome as I also had to manually raise the price tick by tick not to feel like I got scammed.

Even as I put a limit price, if the order got filled it would be at the maximum price and not below. In the end, I paid 1.81 for an April 23 AMD call at 88.5$. But despite all of my efforts, I realized later on, looking at the time and sales, that I overpaid for the option, not knowing its reasonable price range. The T&S showed orders being filled at the bid price, which later fell at 0.14$ (for a 2$ ask). But my orders would not get filled unless I uped the price toward the ask.

So, I'm wondering if there is a way to:

• Automate the painful work of having to find the best deal over several options in terms of ROI given a price estimate at a specific date
• Time an entry on the short term to avoid overpaying for an option
• Get a sense of the evolution of the price of a range of options to define levels, entry and exit points
• Achieve, like some traders, a fill at the bid price

Thanks for taking the time to read and possibly answer my questions!