Money Math

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

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…

9 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…

9 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

using elementary school geometry to explain gamma

In options land, you constantly hear the returns are “non-linear”, “convex”, or maybe even “have curvature”. It comes from the…

10 months ago

the dirties are down the cleans are up

On June 2nd I tweeted: June expiry in USO vol change on the 3% rally... OPEC agreed over the weekend to…

10 months ago

The “most important” gambling topic and a riddle

Non-self weighting strategy We watched Ocean’s Eleven with my older son Friday night (we’ve recently established a Friday night ritual…

11 months ago

the investment industry is a placebo

Giant swaths of the investment industry are doing nothing but selling soothing balms. Placebos. It is the vitamin industry at…

11 months ago

two vol trader interview questions

Thursday’s post the dirties are down the cleans are up took the form of an extended interview question. If you are high-volume…

11 months ago