Yes on both counts. You can't be short vol and never expect to take hits, some of them quite large too. Exclusively VIX. It allows me to trade pure vol and not concern myself with index levels. VIX derivs have gotten quite capital intensive over the years. Some combos are prohibitively expensive and you def need a broker who uses exchange margins.
I am but it’s perfectly boring, vanilla call dispersion on equities. Couldn’t be more boring, but it’s an easy trade these days. I was thinking about your Audi the other day, told that story to someone.
3rd low paid child from Bangladesh today, posting nonsense on forums to build cred, so that it can post spam later.