Don Kaufman here.
While everyone else was losing their minds during the April 2025 crash, I was placing my biggest trade of the year.
Not because I'm reckless - because I know something most traders don't: chaos is where the real money gets made.
Let me be clear about something: I haven't taken one losing Christmas tree trade since 2016.
Not one.
That's nine years of profiting from the exact chaos that destroys other traders.
And April 2025? That "worst market in modern history" everyone's still talking about?
I made $1,400 on a single trade while the market was absolutely crashing.
Most traders think volatility is the enemy. I think it's Christmas morning.
The Edge Everyone Misses
Here's what nobody talks about in those fancy trading courses: when markets get chaotic, something beautiful happens to option pricing called skew.
While you're watching CNBC panic about the next government shutdown or trade war, I'm watching puts trade for literally double what calls cost at the same distance from the money.
Take a simple example. Stock trading at $100. The $85 put - $75 out of the money - will cost you about $2. But that $115 call, also $75 out of the money? You're paying maybe $1.
Same distance, half the price. That's not an accident. That's fear priced into the market.
Most traders look at this and shrug. I look at this and see a mathematical edge that's been printing money for me since the floor trading days.
Bringing the Pain
You want to know what real edge looks like? During that April 2025 selloff, when everyone was talking about how "scary" things were getting, I put on another Christmas tree trade right in the middle of the chaos. Not after it calmed down.
Not when the dust settled. Right in the middle of it.
The trade? A one-by-three-by-four-by-five Christmas tree spread that collected $1,500 in credit upfront.
Think about that for a second - the market's crashing, retail traders are puking positions, and I'm collecting $1,500 just for showing up.
The beautiful part? This trade makes money if the market goes up, makes money if it stays flat, and only gets in trouble if we sell off more than 22%. Twenty-two percent. When's the last time you saw a 22% selloff that stuck?
But here's the real kicker - even if we did crash 22%, I'd make $10,000 on the way down before hitting any real risk. Most traders are running from volatility.
I'm running toward it with both hands out.
The Mathematical Truth
This isn't about having bigger balls or being smarter than everyone else.
This is about mathematical edge. When skew gets this wide - and we're talking about puts trading for double what calls cost - you have a statistical advantage that compounds over time.
I've been trading this strategy since the 1990s, back when I had to hand-draw expected moves on the SPX. The math hasn't changed. Fear still gets priced into puts.
Chaos still creates opportunity. The only difference now is retail traders can actually access this edge through products like the MES futures.
Every tweet from politicians, every "unexpected" announcement, every time the talking heads start using words like "uncertainty" - that's when I get excited.
Because uncertainty equals skew, and skew equals money for anyone who knows how to harvest it.
The Three-Year Setup
Here's something most traders haven't figured out yet: we're sitting on a three-year goldmine of chaos. The current administration guarantees we'll have heavy skew through at least 2028.
Not because markets will crash - though they might - but because nobody has any idea what's coming next.
Trade wars, government shutdowns, policy reversals, social media announcements that move billions of dollars - this is the perfect environment for Christmas tree trades. The more unpredictable things get, the more profitable this strategy becomes.
While other traders are trying to predict the next move, I'm betting on unpredictability itself. And getting paid handsomely for it.
The Bottom Line
Most traders spend their time trying to avoid chaos. I've spent the last nine years learning to profit from it.
When everyone else is panicking about the next crisis, I'm already positioned to turn that panic into cash.
The choice is simple: get crushed by chaos, or learn to turn it into money. I know which side I'm on.
Bring the pain, people.
To your success,
Don Kaufman