No, that requirement for a person to check your trade before processing it is gone but nowadays you would be trading against hypertrading computers, so there is no point even  trying. Option straddles used to work, even though you usually had to call in to get the particular options you wanted listed to the brokerage's system ( they only add options that people actively trade - which is not many of the jillions of those derivatives).  I'm out of it now but option prices look expensive to me given such a low volatility market. I'd guess that's either because of reduced market participants due to rules brought in after the 2008 crash that removed the big banks from it, or maybe some sort of  pricing collusion like the Libor scandal was.  In theory there should be money to be made by selling options ( deeper pockets are needed for that) if volatility is expensive, but I wouldn't try it.