VIX and More

It has been 1 ½ months since Barclays announced the suspension of new creation units in the popular iPath Series B S&P 500® VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX).  Today, we received some additional information from Barclays in conjunction with their...

Yesterday, the CBOE listed the first batch of SPX weekly optionswith a Tuesday expiration, starting with the April 26th and May 3rdexpirations.  Interest is strong, as halfway through today’s session, there were already more than 12,000 contracts traded...

At various times in the 13-year history of VIX ETPs there have been as many of 30+ different versions of these VIX-based products on the market.  Initially, it was the +1x VXX that dominated the space, later supplanted by the +2x TVIX and then the -...

For many years, I’ve had a tagline at the bottom of my email: “In volatility there is opportunity!”  The tagline is a reminder that when things look darkest in the financial markets, this is often an area of maximum opportunity.
On the other hand, the VIX ETPs have quite a few quirks and as a result of these quirks and their high volatility, there are considerable risks for both longs and shorts.  How much risk?  Quite a lot.  Consider that on a split-adjusted basis, the +2x...