VIX was touching / very close to the lower 2 sigma Bollinger band this morning, so I sold my XIV position at 150.13. Bought some IEF (Barclays 7-10 Treasuries) at 93.80 because it was near the low end of its current trading range, will go ex-dividend next week (1-Feb) with a dividend of around $0.24/share, and tends to go up if equities go down. Later …
With no fanfare whatsoever Schwab has added support for weekly and quarterly options on all of their current trading platforms: Schwab.com, StreetSmart Pro, and StreetSmart.com. I thought we would have to wait for the new StreetSmart Edge. See this link for CBOE’s currently offered weekly options. At least on StreetSmart Pro the option greeks on the non-standard options appear to be computed correctly. Instead …
Update: Please see here for more recent information. A few observations: The package is designed for multiple monitors. Each layout can be on a different screen The colored “link” symbol in the upper right synchronizes tools to the same ticker. If you want multiple charts on the same layout for different tickers you should select different link symbols for each one. You can save layouts to the …
Apparently Vanguard likes to keep their ETF ex-dividend and distribution dates a secret until just a couple days before the event. It has that old mutual fund feel to it—”we’ll give you a quote after-market and allow you to buy or sell our stuff at the end of the day, otherwise go away…” As a result, the dates below are just guesses, based on previous year’s …
Update. Barclays’ responded to the problems noted below with their IVOP ETN. It has now has a similar situation that XXV has—near its max price and very low leverage. See this post for more information. ************************************************************* Originally Posted December 11, 2011 Question: What would the value of Barclays’ inverse volatility XXV ETN be if Barclays’ volatility VXX ETN goes to zero? Answer $40 / share …
