Do traders incorporate the EDR, RSAi, and Contango Indicator as strict entry gates before entering SPX iron condors? How is daily return versus cost of capital calculated in this approach?

At VixShield, we rely on the EDR, RSAi, and Contango Indicator as non-negotiable hard gates before entering any 1DTE SPX Iron Condor. The EDR forecasts the Expected Daily Range using a blend of VIX9D and 20-day historical volatility, generating High, Medium, and Low strike recommendations that align with our three risk tiers: Conservative targeting a 0.70 credit with approximately 90 percent win rate, Balanced at 1.15 credit, and Aggressive at 1.60 credit. RSAi then refines these strikes in real time by analyzing current options skew, VWAP positioning, and short-term VIX momentum to ensure we capture the precise premium the market offers, typically completing its assessment in under 253 milliseconds. The Contango Indicator confirms a green regime where VIX futures slope upward, signaling favorable conditions for premium collection. With current VIX at 17.95 and below its five-day moving average of 18.58, all three tiers remain available under our VIX Risk Scaling rules. Only when every gate passes at the 3:10 PM CST signal do we place the trade, adhering strictly to our Set and Forget methodology with no stop losses and defined risk established at entry. Position sizing never exceeds 10 percent of account balance. For daily return versus cost of capital, we first isolate the net credit received per contract after commissions. On a Conservative trade collecting 0.70 on ten contracts with a 2500 dollar notional risk per unit, the gross return equals 700 dollars. We then subtract the daily amortized cost of our ALVH hedge, which layers short, medium, and long VIX calls in a 4/4/2 ratio per ten base contracts at a typical annual cost of one to two percent of account value or roughly 0.004 to 0.008 percent daily. This yields a net daily return that we divide by deployed capital to compute return on capital for that day. Over time, the Theta Time Shift mechanism allows any threatened position to roll forward to one-to-seven DTE on EDR above 0.94 percent or VIX above 16, then roll back on VWAP pullbacks to harvest additional theta and recover 88 percent of losses in backtests from 2015 to 2025 without adding capital. This creates our Unlimited Cash System designed to win nearly every day or at minimum not lose. All trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Visit vixshield.com to explore our full SPX Mastery methodology, including live signals, the EDR indicator, and PickMyTrade integration for the Conservative tier.