"Rolling" straddle

[kapw7]

Quote from sle:

Well, think about it for a second. If you trade the straddle later, you are going to be trading it at a different implied volatility. Instead, you could come up with a structure that will retain sensitivity to volatility across a wide range of strikes. Coincidentally, a combination of a straddle and a bunch of strangles will do it for you, but you need to hedge delta.

OK so my naive strategy is not the best to put in practice.
What you recommend, is it related to the idea of somehow replicating a variance swap? pick strikes Ki and weight as 1/Ki^2? Do you have the straddle ATM and the strangles on the OTM/ITM strikes or some other combination?

I can guess that there is a lot of literature on "var swap replication" but if you or anyone else has anything more practical, suited to a retail account (and a newbie operator but let's forget this now for the benefit of the discussion) it would be great.

 

[quatron]

Quote from sle:

Well, think about it for a second. If you trade the straddle later, you are going to be trading it at a different implied volatility. Instead, you could come up with a structure that will retain sensitivity to volatility across a wide range of strikes. Coincidentally, a combination of a straddle and a bunch of strangles will do it for you, but you need to hedge delta.

I don't think kapw7 actually meant it. I think he is trading long vol + gamma scalping. He does not want to be long options at a lot of strikes, instead he wants to hedge delta and restore gamma/vega when underlying moves (and it will if vol rises).

 

[kapw7]

Quote from quatron:

I don't think kapw7 actually meant it. I think he is trading long vol + gamma scalping. He does not want to be long options at a lot of strikes, instead he wants to hedge delta and restore gamma/vega when underlying moves (and it will if vol rises).

Sorry it's my fault, I left the question open and general to help discussion or maybe because it is still in this form in my untrained mind.
The idea is close to what you describe but then I used a specific example to reply to Dolemite where it might look like I am only interested in vega.

Then sle's suggestion* pointing to a multistrike trade is something I am also interested in theory but I thought it could make things more complex for me in practice. I was hoping I can get away with a simpler strategy and so I asked if ppl use something similar or there is a better way to do it.

*I have no idea of the specific trade that sle is suggesting, I am only referring to the general concept of trading multiple strikes.

 

[donnap]

Quote from kapw7:

...my naive strategy...

Clearly, you aren't the only one naive here.

Consider the synthetic straddle vs. the straddle. Trading the UL, when possible. Selling premium instead of rolling longs. You may find that it is a more efficient way of what you are trying to accomplish.

Focus on risk, rather than form. Don't worry about symmetry. But, yeah, keep it simple and understandable. Give yourself time to gain experience with it.

There are some markets with falling IV and SV, contracting ranges, where this strategy won't work no matter what you do.

But what I like about it is that, with skill, you can garner at least a breakeven much of the time, while you wait for larger, profitable moves.

 

[OptionPro]

It is called straddle swaps. It trades regularly.