Trading Volatility

I haven’t posted much lately - I’ve been dealing with some family matters this summer, which are (mostly) now taken care of. So hoping to be a bit more active here to exercise my writing chops.

But I’ve also been trading pretty actively these past few months and thought it was worth a post. I should preface this by saying I’ve never really considered myself a “trader”. I did get to hang out with some traders during my time working with the Stocktwits team back in the day - and even tried trading for a while. I discovered that I wasn’t very good at it - and it also wasn’t nearly as easy - or fun - as I thought it might be. Trading - especially with today’s 24X7 markets - is mentally exhausting.

Having said that, I learned a few lessons from the experience - notably how much sentiment matters, and how volatility can be a (very) good thing. I had always been a “fundamentals” investor but investor sentiment matters too. And 2025 has most certainly been a volatile year.

I do two types of volatility trades - solid companies that are oversold (and overbought), and pure volatility trading via crypto ETFs (particularly & ). I’m not going to share my system here, but it’s been working quite well.

I’m heavily in short-term bond ETFs right now - mainly & to take advantage of short-term rates and since most everything I’ve been trading is overbought and I’ve lightened up or closed out most of my long positions. The last few weeks have been all up and opportunities are limited - particularly since the Genius Act drove up crypto - but I’ve done some nice trades in , and recently bought a few dips with & .

Watching and waiting to see if Friday’s August 1 tariff “deadline” moves once again - could be (eventually) another buying opportunity. The “TACO” trade may fail this time because “T” is now sensitive to it - but if he sticks to his words, I suspect it’s going to get ugly.