I am trying to say if the ratio is not 1:1, it counts for more margin. A native 1:1 CFE ratio only costs $600 or $800 if in the same 3 front month. A stand-alone, non-matched VIX future contract takes $7500 of margin.
A good rule of thumb: anyone who concerns himself with minimizing / optimizing / reducing margin usage will eventually blow up.
all you guys talking these up must add in the equation you can lose far far more than the margin put up (ie:600 to 800 futures spread margin)....i've done it more than a few times. there are no sure things only better models and hard work. ps:nj i understood what you meant
Got cute with that fly. I had some bear verticals too, but didn't expect APR to drop to 18 this quickly. Had assumed at least 10 day hold. Out the fly at 3.00 for 0.25 gain. Dumb.
I was still long the Apr 23 and 21 puts. I cut this morning as well. Left some decent money on the table, but also made about $2/contract. Hey, tomorrow Iran could fire a missile and the term goes inverted.
Hey, don't forget North Korea! I modified a bit by buying two 18/22 call spreads earlier today after seeing how much April came in - figured a small spec on a halfway decent pop might be reasonable by now, and then selling one of the SPY put spreads so as not to be too heavily invested in the "bearish" side of all this. Hanging on the the rest the way Daffy Duck hung on to that diamond at the end of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where they ran into a bunch of gold and jewels hidden in a cave (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050111/quotes for those of you who are culturally deprived). Now all I need is for VIX to land at around 20, which after all is the long term average. That would be ideal. A true reversion to the mean. What are the chances, I wonder?