Hi OptionEnthusiast,
Thanks for the heads up! Looks like CBOE love weeklies as they drive up exchange commission but their greed is hopefully also the traders gain.
In my personal experience, VIX calendar trades have worked out pretty well over the past 1.5 year - albeit with some stress because usually the entry calls for high volatility situation (e.g., Greece, Swiss de-pegging from Euro, ISIS, etc); but the thesis has been tested (so far): that the volatility and uncertainty from markets abroad does not materially change the "gilded" economic recovery in US, with VIX returning back to 12 after the media frenzy.
So if your margin can withstand the irrationality of the market for some weeks, you can attempt to close after VIX drops back to 12.
My biggest issue with VIX is that the trade is extremely commission intensive; as anyone who has traded VXX (which is the synthetic 30-day mix of the closest and 2nd closest-to expiring VIX futures), usually one has to trade a lot of contracts and add the multiplier if you are doing complex spreads.
So VIX calendar (when VIX spikes),
VIX put bull spread (when VIX is under 12) or VIX broken wing butterfly,
So looking forward to CBOE's weeklies on VIX!
Best,
PC