VIX IronFly for a neutral bet on volatility

After a a little upside on the VIX we got another fast contraction in volatility. Got the idea from the guys at tastytrade and I liked the trade.

This is a neutral bet on the VIX and we make money if it stays between 15.50 and 11.50.

Sold the 13.5 Straddle
and bought the 17 Call and 10 Put wings to make an Iron fly for a $2 credit per contract and reducing our buying power requirements. I will look to manage these very early at 10% of the credit received.

Backtest data done by tastytrade
2006 to present
managed at 10% of the credit received had a 89% Success Rate

Trade active:

I didn't closed the trade at the original target thinking that I could squeeze a little more. Now we lost most of our profits, but still are up on the trade. The VIX is pretty low and I might close it in the next couple of days to re enter in the next cycle and keep collecting some premium.

Trade closed manually:

Closed it with 20 days to go for break even. A small win of $30. Then redeploy exact same trade with exact strikes (10/13.5/13.5/17) on June expiration and collected $2.05 per contract. If Vix moves even lower then I will buy the /VX future and convert the trade in a covered Ironfly. (The future is aprox. 10 times bigger than vix so it would be 1 future per 10 VIX ironflies).

Trade active:

Got long the /VX future (55 days exp) at 13.15, now with a covered Iron Fly. Hopefully we get a move up shortly.

Trade closed: target reached:

Closed the /VX with a nice profit.