mo, xlent idea! don't forget to advise taking no less than an entire account and buying front month straddles.
Hey MO...with the market very oversold and now on its way up do you have a hedge "plan" when/if SPX hits a certain pt? or would you just take off the bet? thanks
Truthfully, between me and you hedging is for losers like Riskarb....I mean, oh yes, a hedge "plan". I will certainly be hedging if cash closes above 1257. What's that you say? It closed at 1259 yesterday! Holy Bejeebus! Well now, what does one expect with overzealous selling and expiration week volatility? Not really a good time period to have a market neutral range-bound short gamma bet on huh? I'll see what happens today with respect to follow through and volume. Might buy some cheap expiration week vanilla gamma. That should turn the market around again pronto. Taking off the bet is not usually an option at BoM IMO, it's expiration or nada thanks to the wide "market" though will check out the mark just to have a giggle. MoMoney.
Yes EOM ES options a possibility. Strike my comment on buying expiration week gamma - it's Thursday already! Hmm...I should really pay more attention to details like day of week etc.
Ratio returned to the mean (1.35 from low of 1.20) , "position" closed. BTW , only exotic's position made money ; I couldn't find any vanilla entry. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=^VDAX&t=3m&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=^vix
Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman were elite mountain climbers from England in the late 70s and 80's. "The Shinning Mountain" written with Peter, and several books writen by Peter Boardman's offer amazing glimpses into the mind and mindset of high altitude climbing. The typescript of Tasker's book "the Savage Arena" was delivered to the publisher on the eve of his departure with the British Everest Expedition 1982. The aim was to tackle the unconquered North-East Face by the N/NE Ridge of Mt Everest. On May 17th Joe and his close friend and long-time climbing companion, Peter Boardman(who had ascended Mt Everest before) were last seen at a height of over 27,000 ft. For some reason your's and Riskarbs exotic bets remind me of these daring young men who are so passionately obsessed with the challenge of the mountain that they seek the hardest route, the most daunting way and each climb is a notch harder and higher, the mountain however.... eventually does claim them. Read their books, Peter Boardman is (was) an especially gifted writer.