Buying a strip straddle: buying 2 at the money puts and buying 1 at the money call on the VXX. If the VXX spikes it's usually hard so that will put you in break even on the call side. Time decay will keep you good on the put side. thoughts?
I don't get what or why you would put that trade on. If your bearish, just buy puts, if your bullish, sell the put and use the premium to buy the call, if your indifferent and think vol is flat then straddle or strangle it, if you think vol will increase, calendar spread it.
The only probably I see is that you end up getting long vol when vol is expensive and the bet you are making (short delta on VXX aka short vol) seems to contradict one another. If your core bet is short volatility, why not get short volatility either by selling a call spread and buying a put spread or a short the front, long the back month /VX calendar spread or long flies / short iron flies / condors?
Yes, but all these strategies above are limited profit. I just want to buy puts but I just want a small insurance if volatility spikes up. What strategies are there on the buy side with options? All these strategies involve selling an option. Never did that before.
Your suggested trade is useless for discussion without stating what time frame you intend to put it on. Vol spikes are meaningless if you are sitting on 6 month puts and if you own AUG VXX strips then you could lose on both.
My strategy is normally 4 months till expiry. Are there other ways to play this safer and with reduced risk without the profits limited?