Any particular strategy ? I have been selling bull put spreads, little tough last few weeks but this rally helped a lot.
I have been trading short volatility, market neutral. The recent explosion in volatility has been costly, and I'm on "vacation" until things calm down.
So, as your account grows do you guys suggest to keep opening new brokerage accounts as needed to keep the cash below 500k? Or is there a point where it makes more sense to to just stop opening new accounts and move the funds into real estate etc.? I started out selling options but am now logging into more than one account to manage the trades, and I am starting to make mistakes as I also have a full-time job and am unable to check the accounts as often as I think I need to.
Short vol. I really haven't thought too much about doing that in sp or spx you interest is convexity of curve not just I think vol is too high? Sell vol....
The rally in vol is hardly an explosion. There will probably be a much more painful time for short vol positions in the next 12 months (if history is any guide).
"High" and "low" with regard to volatility don't mean much in isolation. It's all relative to premiums and whether the option writer is being adequately compensated for risk. I can't predict volatility change any better than price change. I don't pay much attention to skew either. I prefer selling options because I can craft a strategy that makes money most of the time. Some people call it selling insurance. The trick is to survive the occasional payouts. A lot of people say selling options is too risky. But the risk of being short an option is exactly the same as a position in the underlying under SPAN. It's just a lot easier to overtrade and blow up an account using options. I figure it's my job as a trader to manage the risk.
That's the way I see it. If I have to choose, I'll take the occasional spike over the slow bleed. I don't have a strategy for the slow bleed, and I'm not smart enough to read the future. I wasn't trading options in 2008, so I can't say for sure how I would have fared. I think I would have lost money, but I also think I could have survived it.