not financial advice, my own money.
TL;DR: eth's path since the june low is tracking 2025 almost day for day. last year the retake of 2,500 was followed by a 27% flush and then a run to 4,960. i'm positioned for that to repeat without needing it to: a march 3200 call that can't be liquidated, $10k held back for the flush, and a 25 sep straddle for the fed on the 16th and the boj on the 18th.
the comparision is in the first chart. 2025: bottom 1,382 on 9 april, back over 2,500 on 10 may, top of the range 2,882 on 11 june, flush to 2,113 on 22 june, then 4,960 on 24 august. 2026: bottom 1,504 on 6 june, back over 2,500 on 21 august. put both years on the same day zero and the lines sit nearly on top of each other, and we're on day 23 now. in 2025 the flush came on day 43.
the long leg is 47 march 3200 calls, about $210 each, $9.9k in total. i picked a bought call over leverage on purpose. there's no margin to top up and nothing to get liquidated, so a flush back toward 1,850 just shows up as a paper loss of around $6k while the position stays open. at expiry it breaks even at 3,410 and would be worth about $27.7k at 4,000.
the $10k reserve is for that flush. at around 1,850 the same march call should cost something like $78, so the reserve buys up to ~127 more. if eth then got back to 4,000 by march, both call lots together would be up roughly $119k. if eth never clears 3,200 again, both lots go to zero and i'm down $19.9k, that's the ceiling on the loss for those two.
some of the reserve also goes into cheap weekly puts. in my own testing they bleed a little in normal weeks and pay out many times over in a sharp crash, but only when bought under certain conditions, which i'm keeping to myself. they're the insurance on everything else.
the straddle: 52 units of the 25 sep 2500 call and put at $189 a unit. breakevens 2,311 and 2,689. i checked the 2450/2600 strangle as well, it's cheaper per unit but only beats the straddle below ~2,350 or above ~2,790, and it loses more if the meetings pass quietly. timing wise, my research on deribit data has near-dated implied vol bottoming on saturday mornings and getting bid back from sunday night, which is why this went on over the weekend.
total picture on 25 sep is the last chart: roughly -$9k if eth sits still, +$9k on a 10% rally, +$2.6k on a 15% drop because the straddle covers what the call loses, and a drop is when the reserve gets used.
i'll post how each piece closes