Look you cannot boast a 1.85% return through 8 months on a highly leveraged volatility strategy and act like you cured cancer. I could put my money in a 1 year CD at Ally Bank and make almost the same annualized with no effort and less taxes. Don't whip it out and be upset when no one is impressed.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't interpret Bobby's comment on his returns as trying to impress anyone. I just thought he was continuing the transparency of his strategy and noting that it actually hasn't been a great year.
Precisely. And on the flip side, those who are berating him for his very honest results have offered absolutely nothing themselves.
That's fair, I just saw the retort but I agree with your assessment. But you cannot get pissed that we are all not making money when you are claiming 1.85%. I believe many many posters have discussed the problem with this strategy and Karen's actions are nothing new. Many beginners in options treat selling spreads and options as an ATM with amazing returns and I think no matter the warnings, people have to learn on their own. But if you are selling options short and earning single digits there are better ways to make money with less risk.
I think the problem here is that people have warned him over and over that the risk/reward is bad - and even more bad at VIX11. Right now I'd much rather be taking the Artemis approach and targeting a vol event that'll pay for all the continual losses rather than the other way around.
My issue isn't so much to do with how he is trading, but rather that he is sharing what he is doing and his results, as others bash him as if they know better and are doing better and yet show absolutely nothing. In this game, its far too easy to sound smart if you keep your comments general enough and never make predictions about the future that can be tested. Two excellent recent threads here are ET are the one's by Max E and Propwarrior in which they outline trades in real time. It shows how wrong you can sometimes be, and how poorly even seasoned traders can be doing psychologically. This is at least the real shit. But when all Bobby gets is after the fact bullshit about how 1.85% isn't good enough by posters who remain silent about their results, my conclusion is that their contributions are useless. Any moron can say now that the S&P has done much better than 1.85% so far this year, but who was advocating this at the beginning of the year? Of course I'm sure all of these guys are always doing much better than the indexes, and even when the indexes have a down year, they are consistently profitable. But if you ask me, the only thing consistent about a person who comments on someone else's results without sharing their own is that they are full of shit.
Many posters in this thread were also critical in the other tasty threads. Since Bobby decided to "prove" that it worked and it hasn't then that is on him. No one, at least I am not, is against Bobby but against the trading method he is applying.
The tasty trade followers are like recently minted MBA's. They take their itty bit of newly acquired knowledge and they think they know everything. And they are really smug about it.
Hey look, an hour ago, 20 pt gap down in ES futures, GC busted out of range, Yen soaring, all on NK missile launch through JP airspace. And people want to be short vol now w/ VIX at lows too?