Trading the vol surface

Discussion in 'Options' started by CashDelivery, Oct 4, 2017.

  1. what you have said thus far is fairly generic and obvious. lets get into the meat of the matter. what kind of vol dynamics are you using.
     
    #11     Oct 9, 2017
  2. JackRab

    JackRab

    What do you want.. do you want me to fully explain how options market makers trade and make money?
     
    #12     Oct 9, 2017
  3. sle

    sle

    It really depends on what you are trading. Single names are mostly fixed strike, with some beta-seepage. Index is usually some form of beta-vol (variations of lognormal SABR).
     
    #13     Oct 9, 2017
  4. JackRab

    JackRab

    And on top of that you trade on gamma to capture the difference between IV and realized vols.

    You can trade a dispersion strategy... Index vs Singles
     
    #14     Oct 9, 2017
  5. The SABR model looks very interesting and S&P is an appealing product. For single names, I don't understand what you mean by fixed strike, beta seepage. Can you clarify? Thanks.
     
    #15     Oct 10, 2017
  6. >> what you have said thus far is fairly generic and obvious. lets get into the meat of the matter. what kind of vol dynamics are you using.

    Well, that's most likely because they never did that actually in a professional setup so are just repeating common memes.

    I worked for a while for guys who did that and obviously I saw what they did but noone ever explained me *why* it works. I'm fairly certain they didn't know either, further reinforced by the fact that when they started losing they were unable to figure out what's wrong and adapt.

    Generally those who know do. Those who teach, don't.
     
    #16     Oct 12, 2017
  7. newwurldmn

    newwurldmn

    #17     Oct 12, 2017
    JackRab likes this.
  8. Well, one of my favorite jokes is this. A teenager goes to his rich dad and says: dad, I'm going out with the guys, gimme some money. Dad says "well, go to the safe and take some". Kid asks: "ok, how much should I take?". Dad says: "a couple of inches".
     
    #18     Oct 12, 2017
  9. JackRab

    JackRab

    And you as a programmer knows this because...?
     
    #19     Oct 13, 2017
  10. Unlike the other programmers, I asked myself "why" and made 1,000 experiments to understand how this works.

    Now, I'm exactly in Edison's position, "I have not failed. I've just found 10000 ways that won't work" :)
     
    #20     Oct 13, 2017