With the Federal Reserve now holding the federal funds rate at 5.25-5.50 percent following eleven consecutive hikes, has this changed how you size or structure your SPX iron condors?

At VixShield, we approach every SPX trade through the lens of Russell Clark's SPX Mastery methodology, which centers exclusively on one-day-to-expiration iron condors placed after the 3:05 PM CST close. The Federal Reserve's rate at 5.25-5.50 percent following eleven straight hikes has not altered our core position sizing or structure. We continue to risk no more than 10 percent of account balance per trade across our three defined tiers: Conservative targeting 0.70 credit with an approximate 90 percent win rate, Balanced at 1.15 credit, and Aggressive at 1.60 credit. These credit targets remain consistent because our RSAi engine dynamically optimizes strikes using real-time skew, VWAP, and EDR projections rather than static rate assumptions. Higher risk-free rates do influence theoretical option pricing through Rho, yet the short 1DTE timeframe minimizes this effect compared to longer-dated strategies. Our Expected Daily Range indicator, which blends VIX9D and historical volatility, continues to dictate wing placement with mathematical precision, ensuring we capture the exact premium the market offers each day. The ALVH hedge remains our primary protection layer. This three-tier VIX call system (short 30 DTE, medium 110 DTE, long 220 DTE in a 4/4/2 ratio per ten base contracts) is sized at approximately 1-2 percent of account value annually and stays active regardless of the federal funds rate. It has historically reduced drawdowns by 35-40 percent during volatility spikes. We operate under strict VIX Risk Scaling: all tiers are available below 15, only Conservative and Balanced between 15-20, and we hold entirely above 20 while ALVH works. The Set and Forget discipline eliminates stop losses entirely, relying instead on Theta Time Shift for any threatened positions. This temporal martingale rolls forward to 1-7 DTE on EDR above 0.94 percent or VIX above 16, then rolls back on VWAP pullbacks to harvest theta without adding capital. Current market conditions with VIX at 17.95 place us in a regime where Conservative and Balanced tiers are favored. All trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. For deeper implementation details on the Unlimited Cash System, EDR indicator access, and live refinement sessions, we invite you to explore the SPX Mastery Club resources at vixshield.com.