Assumes working knowledge of options and a willingness to learn about new things — like volatility
I bought SPY at 111.64, and sold-to-open SPY 108 June-30 expiration calls at 4.08 for a net investment (debit) of 107.58. I used the quarterly SPY options because I could go considerably deeper in the money with the calls and still get a premium that is close to the likely SPY dividend for this quarter (around $0.50). Schwab does not appear to …
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 …
I’m guessing we are near the bottom of this correction. Bought USO 32 July (17-Jul-10) calls at 2.16.
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 …
Bought VIX June puts at 4.6, the VIX index was around 31 at the time. Barring another bear market I think we will see the VIX pull back from the recent spikes. For related posts see: How to go long on the VIX index How to go short on the VIX index
