Usually the best reason to sell is you need the money or your position has gotten so large you no longer sleep well.
%% Amen, or a secondary reason, brokers, specialists,, market makers love commissions; not that these are the best reasons LOL.
Without wanting to get into lengthy arguments, this was never the point, this was never about direction vs volatility. I simply did not make sense of your comment to buy straddles to protect against downside. Either you are in the game of direction when you then should only buy downside protection if you actually care about being protected or you are in the volatility game. But here you proposed paying away 1/2 of the structure for no perceived benefit. Then you turned around saying "if the long straddles don't work then short the straddles" with emphasis on "it's really that simple". That is what did not really compute with me.
If you went long a straddle expecting high volatility and it didn't cover your costs, you should have sold the straddle and collected premium. So there is no need to guess about anything except volatility.
What about COMPENSATION for the victims I hear you mutter ? Er none that I know of except:- The NHS bill for looking after the survivors - the taxpayer pays The extra costs of policing - again the taxpayers cough up. The funeral costs of the dead - the families fork out for that too. It's a disgrace ! Largely the politician's fault going back to Blair letting them all in. There is a terrible sickness in the muslim community and they should at least foot the bills !!