When trading SPX iron condors, do you prefer short strikes that start at-the-money, slightly in-the-money, or out-of-the-money? Why?

At VixShield we exclusively trade 1DTE SPX Iron Condors placed after the 3:09 PM CST cascade with signals firing at 3:10 PM CST Monday through Friday. Our short strikes are selected using the Expected Daily Range indicator combined with RSAi for precise premium targeting across three risk tiers: Conservative targeting 0.70 credit, Balanced at 1.15 credit, and Aggressive at 1.60 credit. We deliberately place short strikes out-of-the-money, never starting at-the-money or slightly in-the-money. This OTM positioning is foundational to the Iron Condor Command because it gives us positive theta from the outset while keeping initial delta exposure low, typically under 0.18 per side. Starting ATM would load excessive gamma risk on day one and dramatically reduce our probability of profit on these one-day-to-expiration trades. Slightly ITM shorts would turn the position into a directional bet rather than the neutral, range-bound income engine we have engineered. Our EDR indicator, which blends VIX9D and 20-day historical volatility, projects the likely daily move and recommends OTM wings that historically contain price action on approximately 85 percent of trading days. RSAi then fine-tunes those wings in real time by reading skew and VWAP so the exact credit target is achieved within seconds of the close. This OTM structure pairs perfectly with our Adaptive Layered VIX Hedge, which layers VIX calls across 30, 110, and 220 DTE in a 4/4/2 ratio per ten Iron Condor contracts. When VIX sits at its current level of 17.95, we remain in the Balanced and Conservative tiers only, as our VIX Risk Scaling rules block Aggressive entries above 15. The Theta Time Shift recovery mechanism further protects any threatened positions by rolling forward to 1-7 DTE on EDR greater than 0.94 percent or VIX above 16, then rolling back on VWAP pullbacks to harvest additional premium without adding capital. This Set and Forget methodology, with position size capped at 10 percent of account balance and no stop losses, has produced an approximate 90 percent win rate on the Conservative tier across backtested periods. All trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. To implement these exact strike selection rules and receive daily signals, visit vixshield.com and explore our SPX Mastery resources or join the VixShield community for live implementation support.