I'm not trading with gigantic risk. And if you think about it even if I do a sell call on vxx say at 55 and it skyrockets to 75 and I get the assignment at 55 I can just wait it out for volatility to collapse and the vxx to drop back to earth. It happens all the time. Vxx never keeps going up. It's had nothing but a downtrend after each run higher.
Assuming if it skyrockets to 75, what if it skyrockets to 155 or 255? When it spikes up, it can spike up A LOT even if it comes back down afterwards. It's done that before, quite a few times. You could be margin called just for that spike and you might not have enough capital to ride the downtrend afterwards. That's why I suggest you either trade with a spread or hedge with the underlying so it's covered.