SPY and other SPDR ETFs ex-dividend

For updated information about SPY, IVV, and VOO’s dividend see this post. See here for my list / dates for iShare S&P related funds and here for the Russell related funds. Vanguard treats their ex-dividend dates like state secrets.   See here for my estimates on Vanguard ETF ex-dividend and pay dates. .

Hedging 7-10 year Treasure bonds with Barclays’ DTYS

This morning I took the plunge, buying equal amounts of IEF (93.10) and DTYS (52.95) this morning, with the goal of getting a low risk return of 1.7% annualized return or better.   Before I bought I was surprised / dismayed to see that DTYS had fallen more per share than IEF had risen—casting doubt on my planned 1:1 hedging ratio.   I looked back …

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Major bear insurance for a XIV position

I have been loading up heavily in XIV during this correction.   I certainly haven’t been bored, watching big gains one day go away the next, but the contango associated with VXX is currently structural—so as long as that situation continues XIV, which is short contango, will be a long term winner. If this correction turns out to be more than the minor setbacks we’ve …

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How did the volatility ETNs / ETFs perform on Tuesday?

Tuesday was a good day to look at the performance of the current crowd of volatility tickers.   Below is a snapshot of things at the end of the day:       . . .     Some basics: SPY down 1.77%, with relatively high volume—233 million shares VIX closes at 20.80, up 4.37 points.  A 26.6% move! VXX closes at 32.62 up 12.37% …

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A glitchy week for the VIX

Last week didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the CBOE’s Volatility index:  VIX A 0.6% SPX dip, gone two hours later triggers a 3.75% step up in the VIX that didn’t go away At the Thursday morning opening VIX glitches down 0.6 points and then jumps 1.3 points VIX  glitches down a point Friday morning for 15 minutes, and then recovers to within 0.03 …

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