February VIX options expire — fear takes a bite

February VIX options expired today.   The settlement price (ticker VRO/$VRO/^VRO) was 22.50.  The VIX index opened at 22.25.   With this settlement price I ended up losing .35 per call on my VIX spread.    Things could have been much worse–I could have lost up to 2.85 with the spread.    I certainly didn’t expect the VIX to stay up at the levels it has.     People always seem surprised at how fast things drop in a correction, that coupled with the recent savage bear market,  and the uncertainty in the EU, has people spooked.   The 6 month pattern of VIX dropping rapidly after upticks was broken with this sequence.  I’m reminded of the quote, “everything works sometimes but nothing works all the time”.

6 Months VIX index, Click to enlarge