I knew the guy would flake, but had to cajole him into proving he's negative edge. I had no clue that he was this impaired, however.
It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the TrueType Zone. Every position posted to this account has been a debit spread. I took a few of them as a synthetic, but there is zero initial margin in any of the trades. The cash requirement is the debit of the spread. Even the ICs are simply synthetic call(put) condors. Further, the debit paid simply means that the long premium exceeds the short. How can you have been on the fringes of this industry for over twenty years and not know anything?
So destriero, just seeing this thread, did you do battle with VZ and win? Even if he did not engage thanks for trying!
Comparing buying fly's to LJM is little bit disingenious. LJM sold lot of wings with lot more notional exposure (based on their tiny returns compared to XIV) and there is 20% drawdown limit. LJM type of trading can have lot more drawdown with slight increase of vol. Heck, even XIV had plenty of 20% drawdown along the way.
indeed, I would have to climb many rungs up the ladder just to touch your toes. But my broad point is correct, for purposes of competition it would be better to focus on straightforward directional trades in equities, futures, fx. It's a purer test of ability to predict markets. Although the idea of "competing" with a papertrader is ridiculous anyway.
I am predicting vol and price. The BA trade (which I traded, BTW) went from 23 to 29. Are you suggesting that the mid didn’t rally 6 points? Say that I had taken the other side and gone long gamma and vega... I would have lost nearly 30% in long gamma. There is no blowing up. A debit risk means debit risk. The tautology is lost on you.
Think about it this way. You’re short a 90/100P 110/120C condor from 5.00. Who is risking more; you or the buyer?