Short VXX – short XIV backtest

This spreadsheet allows you to enter in any trading date between 30-Jan-2009 and 11-Nov-2011 to backtest the profit/loss performance of a short VIX / short XIV strategy.  See this post for more information and example charts.  See ordering information at the very bottom of this post.

Volatility Tickers

My count of volatility US-based ETPs trading on national exchanges is at 8 as of August 9th, 2024. New Additions: Ticker/Quotes & Leverage Description / Time frame Daily activity? / underlying index ETF / ETNCompany website / Prospectus Comments / Posts ^VIX (Yahoo)$VIX (Schwab)VIX (Fidelity)VIX:IND (Bloomberg).VIX (Reuters)INDEXCBOE:VIX (Google FInance) Cboe Volatility Index®Model-free est. of SPX 30 day volatility VIXDerived from SPX option prices CBOE / …

Read more

Overview of dividend capture strategies

I have written several posts on dividend capture strategies. My favored, although far from perfect strategy: Dividend capture with covered calls Some approaches I don’t recommend: SPY dividend capture ideas that don’t work Dividend capture—three approaches to skip Additional background and tools, and an example: Dividend capture overview Covered calls–are you ready? Combo orders–maximizing profits on covered calls DIA dividend capture: creating the position DIA …

Read more

How to short VXX—the hard way and the easy way

Easy way: If you want to short VXX the simplest way is to buy Volatility Share’s SVIX.  This Exchange Traded Funds tracks -1X  the daily percentage moves of VXX so it isn’t a true short, but it has the same goal—going up when VXX goes down.  They carry annual investment fees (SVXY’s is 1.35%), which I doubt is an issue for you if you’re thinking …

Read more

Saving money with combination orders

If you ever plan to trade more than straight long options you should learn to use combination orders, specifically debit and credit orders. . A combo order allows you to execute multiple trades simultaneously at a single integrated not-to-exceed price.  Some examples: Creating a simple covered call position, buying the underlying equity and selling-to-open calls Creating a call bear option spread, selling the lower strike …

Read more