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Andy Crowder: Many professional options traders don’t really care about options prices or volume. They only care about volatility. That’s because volatility is the single biggest factor for any given options contract. Read more…
JT McGee: Exchange-traded fund investors use ETFs for any number of reasons. Many use them for their simplicity, others know that low ETF fees bring about higher, long-run returns. What many investors seem to forget, however, are the unique risks that come with underlying portfolios that make up any Read more…
David Gillie: The Volatility Index (VIX) is a measure of options activity on the S&P 500—frequently referred to as the “fear index” Read more…
Bill Luby: Three years after their launch, iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (NYSEArca:VXX) has about four times as many assets as its mid-term sibling, iPath S&P 500 VIX Read more…
Bill Luby: It does not seem to long ago that I was the only person who though VXX was worth mentioning. Read more…
[The following first appeared in the December 2010 edition of Expiring Monthly: The Option Traders Journal. I thought I would share it partly because I have an article, “Synthetic Seasonal VIX-VXX Arb,” which appears in the just published January 2012 issue of Expiring Monthly that Read more…
Kevin McElroy: Does the market feel calm to you? Probably. The fastest way to measure “fear” in the market is to look at the Volatility Index – usually abbreviated VIX. Read more…
David Gillie: In the world of market volatility, what goes down, must come up. And the most likely time for that to happen is when the bulls and bears are sleepily resting on their laurels. Or, as it’s called on the Volatility Index (.VIX), “Complacency”. In the past, the average investor had no way to get Read more…
John Townsend: I’d like to introduce you to an acquaintance of mine. I call him the Dinosaur of Sentiment, the Sentimental Dinosaur and just plain T-Rex for short. His real name, however, sounds Read more…
Michael Johnston: Between the beginning of the second half of 2011 and the middle of December, few exchange-traded products endured a tougher stretch than the VelocityShares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN (XIV); the exchange-traded note plummeted last summer as the “fear index” spiked Read more…
John Nyaradi: 2012 will likely bring plenty of fear to global stock markets and now ETFs present opportunities to profit when fear runs high. 2012 is off to a fast start with a quick rally in global indexes and plenty of uncertainty surrounding events in the Persian Gulf and the ongoing, seemingly never Read more…
Bill Luby: The year is not quite over, but I can safely predict that it when it is in the books, there will be no doubt that 2011 has been a bull market for VIX exchange-traded products (ETPs). After seeing two VIX ETPs launched in 2009 and ten in 2010, this year has witnessed the launch of 20 VIX ETPs. Read more…
“The trend is your friend but the fade is the ultimate wealth builder” – Tom Sosnoff. Every trader has their own approach. There is no holy grail. It is your responsibility as a trader to find a few trading strategies that fits into your lifestyle and stick with them for life. But, make sure you diversify your Read more…
Bill Luby: Since Barclays/iShares launched the first VIX-based exchange-traded products (ETPs) three years ago next month, the landscape of volatility ETPs has been dominated by products that are based on VIX futures. This should come as no surprise to investors, since the cash VIX (or VIX index Read more…
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