Assumes working knowledge of options and a willingness to learn about new things — like volatility
Any strategy that hopes to offset down days in the market with volatility products that go up on those same days needs to figure out how much leverage the volatility product provides. A little calculation produced the equation below for computing the expected price of Citigroup’s CVOL from the VIX index quote: (VIX – 10) * 9.6 = CVOL So if the VIX jumps …
When Barclays ‘ VXX ETN first came out early last year I was pretty excited. Having an direct investment in a volatility product that didn’t have the time decay (theta) of VIX options was attractive. However, it turns out that price erosion on VXX is a huge issue—anyone that holds on for the long term becomes a loser. In spite of this, …
Redirected Citigroup’s new volatility ETN, CVOL has only been trading since November 15th, but it is starting to show some intriguing results. Designed as a 2X leveraged volatility offering, in a class of products that are already known for volatility, we can expect a wild ride. So far it has lived up to its billing with a high of around 110, and a …
It’s not easy to find. I tried and failed for several years to find it. Finally “Rock Man” found it and commented on this post—the Google Finance ticker symbol is INDEXCBOE:VIX Most of the CBOE’s other VIX related tickers are also available on Google Finance: VXV, VXO, VXD, VXAPL, VXEEM, VXEWZ, VXIBM, VXXLE, VXN, VIN, VIF—all prefixed by “INDEXCBOE:”. The volatility of volatility index …
Update: Schwab has added weekly and quarterly option support to all of their trading platforms. See here for more information. Schwab has provided a peek under the tree for the account holders they think have been good: Stocking stuffers (not available until January): A 35% discount for TurboTax. In your Schwab account online look for “Tools and Calculators” under “Guidance”, then look for “File with …
