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As far as I know, it's not an IB-specific issue. EDIT: You can try asking CBOE/OIC why this is the case. They promptly answer questions.

I don't know, it probably has to do with exchange rules or something.

Only market makers are allowed to do that.

Darn, there goes my plan! :D

It's usually calculated as an index similar to VIX calculation. Some providers just calculate an ATM IV volatility.

:D Good one!

Generally it is calculated as an index similar to VIX.

That's the million dollar question. There is no rule of thumb or formula.

(1) It's not better to be paid than paying. There is absolutely no difference. If you sell a spread and get paid then you also have a margin requirement so you still end up tying up capital. Unless of course you use other securities to meet the margin requirement, such as treasuries or...

As others have already pointed out, yes, you can exercise an option into a futures contract. Options are always exercised into the next available futures contract, so for example, if there is a Dec futures contract and a Mar contract then Dec options would be exercised into Dec futures, while...

Which prices are you looking at to compare them? Last trade, bid/ask,...?

There are two January chains. The one with fractional strikes is the standard one, while the other one is non-standard (adjusted). The 25 call @ .95 is standard. The one @ .05 is non-standard. I use thinkorswim and it conveniently lists the two chains separately so you can see exactly...

No, there's no way to have the same effect. That's the whole purpose of a spread.

The gap could be anything depending on the news flow.

These are only to replace the current weekly options not the standard monthly ones.

Jan VIX options are priced off of the Jan VIX futures, which are @ 24.10, not spot VIX so that $3 premium over spot you mention is completely irrelevant. In other words, the "opportunity" you see is just you not understanding the pricing of VIX options.

If you need to be really precise then you should go with hours to expiry rather than days. For your second question, you use calendar days not trading days, so it's 8 days.

Don't forget that there is a trade off with trading 2-3 months out condors rather than front month - time decay is relatively low in the beginning (less gamma means less theta), so you would still have to wait for the last month to get any decent decay. In addition, while it is true that you...

First of all, let me say that the last 5 months have been absolutely perfect for iron condors so please don't make any extrapolations about your future returns and/or ability (not that you do in your post, but just wanted to point that out for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread)...

You have two problems with that. First, VIX options don't have Leaps, they only go out to May11. And second, even if there were Leaps, the front month options and Leaps would have different underlyings.