What kind of inverse fund is Barclays’ new XXV offering?

Update: I do not believe XXV is a good way to short VXX, or volatility in general.  It has very little upside remaining (maximum value will be $40/share),  see this post for more details. ********************************************************** We know that Barclays’ XXV is intended to be an inverse fund of VXX, but there is some confusion regarding what kind of inverse it will be.   Will it be the …

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Free VIX option quotes, understanding European exercise on VIX options

Free delayed VIX option quotes are available from: CBOE (Symbol VIX, enter symbol in quote field on left side of the page), check “list all options” radio button and submit Yahoo provides VIX index quotes (symbol ^VIX) and options quotes. The VIX option symbols listed in the CBOE option chains have an “-e” at the end.  This indicates they have a European style exercise.  Unlike typical …

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Betting on fear to fade

Bought VIX June  puts at 4.6,  the VIX index was around 31 at the time.   Barring another bear market I think we will see the VIX pull back from the recent spikes. For related posts see: How to go long on the VIX index How to go short on the VIX index

Doubling up on Oil, betting on VIX dropping

Did covered calls on Oil — bought USO at 37.19, sold-to-open May 37 calls at 1.02 for a net investment of 36.18. Created a bear spread on VIX options today.   Betting on VIX going down is forecasting that the market in general will be flat or positive.  I sold-to-open June VIX 16 calls at 10.26, bought  June  VIX 32.5 calls at 1.88 for a …

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Going short on VIX?

Unlike the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Index, there is no way to directly invest in the VIX index.  I’m sure some really smart people have tried to figure out how to go long or short on this computed volatility index, but there’s just no way to do it directly.  Instead, you have to invest in a security that attempts to track VIX.  None of …

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