VXX options offer ways to take either long or short volatility positions. Unlike most securities VXX tends to go up when the market is down—which leads to some signficantly different options characteristics. Comparing VXX options to VIX options: Similarities: Both are ultimately based on the Cboe’s VIX futures Will show a strong reversion to baseline behavior when the market is behaving itself—the VIX index and …
Free delayed VIX option quotes are available from: CBOE (Symbol VIX, enter symbol in quote field on left side of the page), check “list all options” radio button and submit Yahoo provides VIX index quotes (symbol ^VIX) and options quotes. The VIX option symbols listed in the CBOE option chains have an “-e” at the end. This indicates they have a European style exercise. Unlike typical …
Unlike the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Index, there is no way to directly invest in the VIX index. I’m sure some really smart people have tried to figure out how to go long or short on this computed volatility index, but there’s just no way to do it directly. Instead, you have to invest in a security that attempts to track VIX. None of …
If you have general questions about dividends see Top 10 questions about dividends. One strategy for capturing dividends is to buy the stock/ETF and then sell calls against that security as a hedge—a covered call. The value of the short calls moves in the opposite direction of the stock/ETF, providing a hedge. There are three major variables with this strategy: 1. How many days before …
Advantages of ETF index funds over mutual funds index funds: Management fees are usually lower. For example for inflation protected bonds the Schwab mutual fund SWRSX has a .5% expense ratio and the iShares Barclay equivalent TIP has an expense ratio of .2%. Instead of trades executing at the end of the day they can be bought or sold at any time the market is …
