Volatility based Exchange Traded Funds and Notes (ETF / ETN) have only been on the market for a few years (see volatility tickers for the full list of USA based funds). The oldest one, Barclays’ VXX only started trading in late January 2009. Because of their relative youth, we don’t have actual trade data on how they would have performed through critical periods—for example, …
Years ago I was watching the action around an Atlantic City roulette table when I noticed a man taking careful notes. When I asked what he was doing he said he was looking for long consecutive strings of red or black. If the run got long enough he was going to bet that the ball on the next spin would land on the opposite color …
On November 4th I will be participating in a panel discussion at IndexUniverse’s Inside ETF Trading conference in New York. Christopher Cole (Artemis Capital Management) and Chris Meek (State Street Global Advisors) will be joining me in a discussion that will include VIX futures, volatility ETF/ETNs and various ways to hedge volatility investments. The overall conference agenda looks very good, and I think our session …
I’m seeing a lot of articles (e.g., here) warning about a possible short squeeze in volatility. At the risk of being a curmudgeon, it appears to me that people don’t know what a short squeeze is. Sure, if you’re short something that starts going up rapidly (e.g., Achman with Herbalife), life is not good. There’s a positive feedback loop when people closing out their short positions have …
The Sharpe Ratio The Sharpe Ratio is one of the more popular ways to evaluate an investment for risk as well as for returns. Assessing the risk of an investment is not easy. The Sharpe Ratio won’t protect you if the provider is dishonest (e.g., Bernie Madoff) or if historical patterns change (e.g., default rates on AAA-rated mortgage-backed securities). However the ratio does factor-in historic …
