ODTE SPX SPY 9:30-12 vs. 12-4

Gods evening gents:

I’ve been trading about 3 months and have been getting more consistent, still learning the hard way sometimes.

I just looked over the past 5 days and a couple of things I’d like to hear what other traders think.

1. I’m seeing that the pre-market bleeds into 9:30 and today for example, gapped down pre-market and continued lower for the first hour.

I had 636 and 637 SPY calls that I made some money on from like 10:30- 12 pm, with like $.50 profit, noticed that they were soooo much higher by the end of the day. Do any of you buy in the morning and hold all day or do you sell and go in again?

Also, I’m noticing that the premiums are so much higher on the morning, and that maybe it’s best to wait it out in about half the days just to enter trades in the afternoon and cut down on the premium price.
I did much better with SPX, I bought 6405’s for $2.30, straight ld for $3.50, and was dismayed I didn’t hold until 4 as they went over $10.

I bought 6410’s, 10 contracts , for $1.25 , sold at $2.70 as they jetted up fast , but again saw another 100 percent move up to over $5.

These were both about the “easiest” SPX trades I have made, yet left over $9000 on the table. Any advice for strategies to maximize gains ?

Was thinking of perhaps only going 3-5 contracts in the morning to offset the high premiums and risk. I have had some horrendous $5 k losses on 10 contracts and I can’t stomach another one of those. Friday was particularly painful, as I bought 100 SPY contracts at .82 in the morning, they ground down to .36 when I capitulated and sold, only to see with more pain as they bravely battled the theta burn all day and heroically got to .90 by the end of the day, damnit! Thanks in advance gents.