strikethree

Straddles are actually one of the most important instruments for option-traders: say I quote a bid for a customer selling a swaption. I would than do delta with swaps-desk and (as i'm long vega from the swaption) sell atm-straddles to hedge my vega. Atm-straddles have zero delta and are therefore THE instrument to handle vega. You could also handle the volatility with mbs, bonds with optionality, etc with straddles...