Volatility Landscape: And Then There Were 20

News Recently UBS announced that they shutting down 12 of their 13 volatility based funds.  They never gathered the assets needed to make them going concerns. After a long drought we have a new USA based Volatility ETP.   First Trust’s CBOE S&P 500 Tail Hedge ETF—ticker VIXH started trading last week, bringing us to a total of 20 US volatility funds (see Volatility Tickers for the full list).   This …

Read more

2023 PIMCO Ex-Div & Pay Dates: BOND, MINT, MUNI, HYS, TIPZ, etc.

The 2023 Ex-Dividend and Pay Date information below is based on my estimates.  I was not able to find official information from PIMCO for 2023.  Monthly Paying Funds 2023 Ex-Dividend Dates (estimates) 1-Feb 1-Mar 3-Apr 1-May 1-June 3-Jul 1-Aug 1-Sept 2-Oct 1-Nov 1-Dec 12-Dec (cap gains) 29-Dec  Pay / Distribution Dates (estimates) 6-Feb 6-Mar 6-Apr 4-May 5-June 7-July 4-Aug 7-Sept 6-Oct 6-Nov 6-Dec 15-Dec (cap …

Read more

VIX and VXV Show SPX Term Structure at Historic Highs

This post was 1st published August, 2012. In addition to the well-known VIX index, the CBOE also publishes the VXV index.  It’s computed just like VIX, except that it gauges the implied volatility of SPX options 3 months out, rather than just one month. The chart below shows the 10-year history of these two indexes. < Recently I posted on how the medium term time structure …

Read more

Trading Options As a Business

Recently I finished reading a book on options that doesn’t explain the basics of calls and puts.  The Greeks are on almost every page, but never defined, and it’s assumed that the reader already knows options strategies and acronyms (e.g., butterflies, condors, ratio spreads, ATM, OTM). Clearly the “The Option Trader’s Hedge Fund” is not for beginners. It targets serious traders that know the basics and …

Read more

Credit Risk and Exchange Traded Notes

In their fifteen year history, which includes the 2008/2009 financial meltdown, a grand total of three Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) have gone bust due to credit default—all 3 were issued by Lehmann Brothers.  The total loss to investors was less than $15 million.  This article on ETF.com gives the detailed story. How many public companies have gone bankrupt, rendering their stock worthless, in the last …

Read more