The LSE Directory / Trading influencers
Darrin Johnson is an American independent volatility trader best known for shorting volatility in the S&P 500 complex, including index options, options on futures, VIX futures, and VIX ETPs. Self-taught, he has described learning the quantitative side by studying Euan Sinclair's option-trading texts and hiring graduate students to walk him through the academic math, and he was the first independent trader featured on Corey Hoffstein's Flirting with Models podcast (2021). He has also appeared on The Market Gaggle by Pollinate Trading, the Mutiny Funds podcast, Real Vision, and Macro Ops interviews, and is a member of the Macro Ops Collective. Based in the Denver, Colorado area after previously trading from the Dallas suburbs, he shares vol research on X, where his profile shows roughly 15.5K followers, and is known for informally mentoring, in his words "paying it forward" to, retail traders struggling with options and volatility.
