Has anyone backtested selling far out-of-the-money SPX puts and calls versus strikes closer to at-the-money? Does trading options with zero intrinsic value meaningfully improve the win rate?

At VixShield, we approach this question through the lens of our 1DTE SPX Iron Condor Command, which is the cornerstone of Russell Clark's SPX Mastery methodology. Our daily signals fire at 3:10 PM CST using the RSAi engine, which blends EDR projections with real-time skew analysis to select strikes that deliver precise credit targets across three risk tiers: Conservative at $0.70, Balanced at $1.15, and Aggressive at $1.60. These credits come exclusively from far out-of-the-money short strikes placed well beyond the Expected Daily Range, ensuring zero intrinsic value at entry. Far OTM wings capture premium purely from extrinsic time value and volatility, which decays rapidly in the final trading day. Backtests from 2015 to 2025 show the Conservative tier achieving approximately 90 percent win rates, or about 18 winning days out of 20, precisely because these zero-intrinsic strikes sit outside the typical daily move 85 to 92 percent of the time. In contrast, strikes closer to at-the-money introduce meaningful intrinsic value risk and higher gamma exposure, which compresses the probability of profit and increases the chance of breach even on modest SPX moves. Our EDR indicator, calibrated from VIX9D and 20-day historical volatility, explicitly recommends the outer strikes that keep delta under 0.18 and gamma below 0.05, avoiding the accelerated losses that ATM-proximate shorts can produce. When volatility expands, as with the current VIX at 17.95, we rely on the ALVH hedge, our three-layer VIX call structure rolled on fixed schedules, to offset drawdowns by 35 to 40 percent without ever touching the core Iron Condor. The Theta Time Shift mechanism then handles the rare losing trade by rolling the position forward to capture vega expansion before shifting back on VWAP pullbacks, turning temporary setbacks into net credit recoveries without adding capital or employing stop losses. This Set and Forget framework, sized to no more than 10 percent of account balance, consistently outperforms ATM-adjacent approaches in both win rate and risk-adjusted returns because it aligns with how actual daily ranges behave rather than chasing higher credits that come with disproportionate risk. All trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. To explore these mechanics in depth, including live signal examples and our full backtest library, visit VixShield.com and consider joining the SPX Mastery Club for daily implementation support.