The Money Angle

how I explained vol drag to a 12-year-old

I used a pattern to explain it to my 12-year-old on our car ride on Monday. Start with: 8*8 =…

7 months ago

how I understand the Black-Scholes formula

Paid subs will recall my story of Doug teaching Black-Scholes to my cohort at SIG back in 2001. Four hours in one…

7 months ago

the GFC through a quant’s eyes

I can’t remember which of the 3 Todd Simkin interviews on my blog I summarized where he mentions it but…

7 months ago

calendar spreads through the eyes of a vol trader

I got long IBIT (BTC etf) when my April calls expired ITM. IBIT continued rallying, I was happy to stay…

8 months ago

Betting on PLTR to $40

Notable short seller Andrew Left’s firm Citron Research gave his “all roads lead to $40” pronouncement on X this week regarding PLTR 2.90%↑ : Created…

8 months ago

timing the market

In the discord, I was asked a good question that’s lingered for me. I’ll share the fuller response here but…

8 months ago

Vol drag is misunderstood…until now

Yesterday, we (yet again) discussed the topic of how vol drag affects the skewness of a return distribution. In particular…

8 months ago

Sparring with AI: Theoretical options p/l vs discrete hedging

A conversation with Claude Opus 4 KA: What is the compact formula for daily option pl that relates realized variance…

8 months ago

“Turds float to the top before a flush”

One of the first lessons I learned in trading is how the tip of the information spear is the futures…

8 months ago

Why meme stock put spreads look expensive

I got words today tying back practically to Sunday’s Money Angle about the relationship of vol to stock distributions. It’s…

9 months ago