Because strangles are pricey... if you have a clear directional view, a strangle is definitely not the play here. The Put skew is more expensive than the call right now and if I'm playing the value to the upside, owning an OTM put makes no sense in my opinion unless you are creating a synthetic call with the underlying equity.
Fat Cap,
You are clearly viewing this too too binary and that's why ultimately you are trading and playing this very poorly and too expensive. Nobody is suggesting you go balls out and commit $100k in options... I'm merely suggesting that you can make a more optimal play on a crude oil move up while diversifying your downside by thinking critically about your capital vs. just thinking 'I'm all in' w/ ORIG (see point 2 here as an example). Couple of facts I get now that I'm able to look at the option chain that you just need to be mindful of:
1. The implied volatility skew and open interest in January 2017 is heavily weighted to the Put side... granted liquidity is low... but it puts are more expensive that calls. Just something to think about.
2. Going to take one more swing at this. Looking at the option chain, looks like a lot of people want to set up a call spread but there are no mullets to buy a $10+ call on this equity right now. Let's pretend you decide to cap your equity buy at $10k. Your extreme upside scenario is $20 to make math easy, I'm rounding your equity purchase to price to $5. That leaves your upside profit at $15 or $30,000.
Now, look at the option chain for the 2017 call. $5 call in Jan17 costs a $1 right now. Profiting $30k on that position at a move to $20 would mean you'd need to buy about 22 contracts
(20-5)-(premium at $1)*22 ctn * 100 = $30,800
That position costs you $2,200 right now. So... you have another $7,800 to do what you want to make your oil play (read: crude oil ETF or another equity play)... that's the way to coil up on a crude oil move and also diversifies you a bits.
Question you then need to ask yourself, IF crude oil remains range bound, is there a good chance your original $10k equity investment in this scenario could dip under being worth $7,800 anytime between now and 2017... if the answer is 'yes'... then play the options, not the equity.
My $0.02... not a financial advisor. Just a guy who trades equity options a lot. You are a young guy, but your clear hubris and blinders in the play have the potential of really kicking you in the balls. You don't need to do exactly this, but it's pretty clear if you just give your capital commitment a tad more thought, you'll see that you aren't trading optimally here. I'm always of the belief that there are no issues making a risky play if you can afford it... but if you do it, make sure you trade smart to get into the position with the best value possible... you are REALLY far from doing that with your play in my opinion.