Ten Questions About Short Selling

We don’t have good metaphors to help us understand the short-selling of equities.  It’s easy to understand a straight “long” investment.  For example, planting a garden is a reasonable analogy—it involves buying seeds, planting them, and in due time there is a payoff—or not. But in real life people rarely borrow something, immediately sell it, and hope to buy it back at a cheaper price.  …

Read more

VIX9D Index, Futures Quotes and Expiration Dates

Update Due to low demand, the CBOE discontinued VXST options and futures.  The VXST index, renamed the VIX9D, continues to be active. The CBOE went on to introduce weekly versions of its popular 30-day VIX futures which have been marginally successful. _______________________________________________________________________________________ VIX9D Indexes On  October 1st, 2013 the CBOE introduced the VXST index. VXST, later renamed to VIX9D. It uses the same methodology as …

Read more

Dynamic Volatility Funds During a Correction

During a significant market correction everyone knows that the long volatility funds like VXX, TVIX, and UVXY soar, while inverse funds like XIV and SVXY get crushed—no subtlety there.  However, there are a class of volatility funds that attempt to finesse their way through market downturns.  They change their allocations based on market conditions or use periodically rebalanced mixes of VIX futures in an attempt …

Read more

2023 Vanguard Ex-Div & Paydates: VCIT, VCLT, VGSH, VMBS

Apparently, Vanguard likes to keep its ETF ex-dividend and distribution dates a secret until just a couple of 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 …

Read more

2023 Ex-Dividend Dates for iShares’ IFEU, IFAS, DVYE, IFGL, IFNA, DVYA, IDV, WPS

2023 Ex-Dividend Dates for IFEU, IFAS, DVYE, IFGL, IFNA, DVYA, IDV, WPS International FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Funds, Dow Jones International Select Dividend, S&P Developed ex-U.S. Property Funds Based on Ishares’ distribution schedule, I expect the next ex-Dividend, pay dates for these ETFs to be:   2023 Ex-Dividend Dates Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 23-March 7-June 26-Sept 20-Dec 28-Dec Pay / Distribution Dates 29-March 13-June 2-Oct 27-Dec 4-Jan-2024 …

Read more