I don't follow. It in no way resembles a condor. A synthetic long at x, and a synthetic short at y. It's a box. The PnL is governed by the initial execution and the path of LIBOR. There is no delta, gamma, theta or vega sensitivity [practically-speaking]. It's a rate-arb or a method of earning [nearly] the risk-free rate on funds that would be earning less than LIBOR when idle. Another slant -- the box is the arbitrage which maintains the equivalence of same-strike call and put verticals.
: confused : You're legging into synthetic spot positions at edge? Or perhaps buying the put[call] vertical in the hopes of buying the call[put] vertical cheaper? If so, why lock the position in an arbitrage with zero opportunity? It offers no benefit. "Vol is high" has no meaning when trading boxes.
atticus you are much smarter than this. . . and again taking something posted at the O boards seriously that was posted obviously in jest. You guys need to lighten up. Finally, this is an option only trade, short verticals on both sides & there are no shared strikes . . . whatever else people want to call it.
Give the man a cigar! At the risk of sounding flip, it pays to remember that there are really only two things you can do with options buy 'em & sell 'em & no matter what fancy names are given to any combination of doing so, there is nothing new in the options world - the beauty is always, always in the management.
Smarter than what? You're assuming I've read the Optionetics' posts? The box was the only position posted to this thread.
Smarter than seeing it for what it was yet not coming to the logical conclussion. No I assumed that you read this entire thread where Eliot came back with his own realisation from reading the O thread that it was indeed a send up. Other than that I know from usual contrib's here that you know enough about options to recognise that such a thing would only be posted in jest - you know, one of those threads where someone is fishing for the 'holy grail of risk free options strategies' & some clever dick decides to go shooting. . .it's not like that is a foreign occurence over here. Anyway, db has his answer now & the educational value of this thread (!!!) is exhausted I reckon.
It begs the question, why would you continue to discuss the trade w/o outlining it here? Is this an Optionetics' thread? I did read Eliot's response. Stating it's a joke thread really isn't telling. Further, the Optionetics' "traders" [and some here] believe a collar is superior to a vertical. So no, I don't assume the barrier to entry is met on either board.