When the VIX is around 18, do you adhere to the Conservative and Balanced tiers targeting 0.70 to 1.15 credits while maintaining full ALVH layers?

At VixShield, we follow a disciplined framework rooted in Russell Clark's SPX Mastery methodology, especially when the VIX sits near 18 as it does currently at 17.95. Under our VIX Risk Scaling rules, a reading below 20 but above 15 directs us to the Conservative and Balanced tiers only. This means we target net credits of approximately 0.70 for Conservative positions, which have historically delivered win rates near 90 percent or about 18 out of 20 trading days, and 1.15 for Balanced setups. The Aggressive tier seeking 1.60 credits is paused in this environment to align risk with prevailing volatility. We always deploy the full ALVH Adaptive Layered VIX Hedge regardless of the Iron Condor tier selected. This proprietary three-layer system uses short-term 30 DTE, medium-term 110 DTE, and long-term 220 DTE VIX calls in a 4/4/2 contract ratio per ten base Iron Condor units. It is designed to cut portfolio drawdowns by 35 to 40 percent during volatility expansions while costing only 1 to 2 percent of account value annually. Strike selection relies on our EDR Expected Daily Range indicator combined with RSAi Rapid Skew AI, which analyzes real-time skew, VWAP positioning, and short-term VIX momentum to optimize wings in roughly 253 milliseconds. All trades are 1DTE SPX Iron Condors entered strictly in the post-close window at 3:05 PM CST, embodying our Set and Forget approach with no stop losses and defined risk established at entry. The Theta Time Shift mechanism provides zero-loss recovery by rolling threatened positions forward to 1-7 DTE on EDR above 0.94 percent or VIX above 16, then rolling back on VWAP pullbacks below that threshold to harvest additional theta. This temporal martingale has recovered 88 percent of losses in extensive backtests from 2015 through 2025. With the current VIX at 17.95, below its five-day moving average of 18.58 and in a contango regime per our Contango Indicator, the environment favors premium collection within the Conservative and Balanced parameters. Position sizing remains capped at 10 percent of account balance per trade, and Conservative tier auto-execution is available via PickMyTrade integration. This structured methodology turns the market's daily oscillations into consistent income while the ALVH stands guard. All trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. For deeper implementation details, including live signal examples and indicator access, we invite you to explore the resources inside the SPX Mastery Club.