I am Short GIS straddles. Into earnings. Usually I think of an outcome and then pick a strategy to play that view rather than the other way around. So I don't think I will be much help with skip strike bflys. Regarding regular butterflys, I am just looking for a pin to my strike. I buy the wings for margin and safety purposes.
Imo, to learn more about debit butterflies; deconstruct it into short straddle and long strangle. The components are a little easier to understand in isolation from each other. Just starting out I don't know if there's much benefit haggling over the strike symmetry. Shape of the smirk allows for a little optimization but whether your vol thesis is good or not will primarily drive the expectancy of the trade.
Magic any chance you are short adbe or gis vol? Both of then were on my short list (however I did not take ADBE).
I agree, very strongly; in fact, I mention that point repeatedly in my journal. However, I'm still at the point of trying to learn the tools themselves before I can use them... just now getting to have some degree of confidence in doing the wheel, and am desperately trying to get past being a one-trick pony so I can apply the right tools for the conditions. That's something I really, really want - and have been running at top speed to get there for the past half a year or so. But thanks, the bit on regular flies is helpful. I still have only a vague idea of how to do anything directional - much less aiming for something as precise as a pin - but I'm working on improving that as well.
I appreciate that, @Magic - thank you! In fact, thanks to @destriero 's kind help in another thread, I've been deconstructing everything and considering it from those perspectives. Frankly, it's turning my brain inside out... but I obviously need to learn to think that way, and get so used to it that it becomes natural, so - no pain, no gain. Also useful - I'm not sure I could quantify how, but it just lit up a piece of my brain that went "ah-hah; that ties this and that together". Given that vol is what I ultimately want to lean into with options, that's a piece of the foundation I'm trying to build.
I have small size in GIS. Working on a few other things so I haven't spared too much thought about the recent releases. Was thinking about ADBE but I ran out of time before I was able to give it a quick look.
We'll have to see what it closes at today. Just out but feels like there's still a few more pennies left on the table.