Notice that I didn't say that you don't understand. I have no reason to believe you don't. My point was that, as per your own admission, you don't know what to do with them.Quote from bwolinsky:
It's not that I don't understand it but that I don't know any off the shelf technology that'll let you attempt to code these things into a backtestable platform. I've never seen it, and all I've seen is possibly some option pro platforms that could calculate IV or your delta hedge ratio and I know some will even keep your position at the right hedge ratio but that is the absolute limit to what I think can be done right now.
Sure you can use Binomials or monte-carlo path dependent simulations but unless there's some data then testing just to prove where volatility might go to still won't tell you the direction you really need to be trying to catch. It's not so much I don't understand them, I've never seen any options strategy analysis performance summaries...ANYWHERE.
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What I am really shocked at is what sle has said a couple of times. How is it possible that you possess enough intellectual arrogance to tell people who have been trading vol for a while and are pretty good at it that what they do isn't viable? That's just absurd...