Barclays had the short term volatility ETF space to itself from January 2009 until November 2010 with their VXX long and XXV short ETNs. On November 30th, 2010 VelocityShares came on the scene with three new short term funds: 1X long VIIX , 2X long TVIX, and -1X daily inverse XIV. Fifteen months later, on February 14th, the combined daily volume of these VelocityShares ETNs …
ProShares was the first Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) provider for volatility based funds. The previous volatility entries from Barclays (e.g., VXX & VXZ) were all Exchange Traded Notes (ETN). Click on the underlined ETF / ETN for discussions on how these types of securities work. Proshares has done well and currently has the most assets in the volatility ETP space. UVXY (1.5X long) and SVXY ( …
For a long time investors have been frustrated in their desire to directly invest in the VIX index. Now three ETNs, one by design, and the two other perhaps by accident are tracking (or out-performing) the VIX index on both a daily percentage move basis and for multi-day holding times. Historically the daily percentage moves of short term (1/2 month) volatility ETNs like VXX tend …
The Holy Grail of volatility investing would be an ETN or ETF that matched the movements of VIX—CBOE’s volatility index on the S&P 500. As a hedging vehicle it would be nearly ideal—negatively correlated to fast moves of the S&P 500 with a stable floor during quiet times. So far no one has figured how to economically offer a fund that does this. Instead …
