Not as easy at one might assume, a Vixing problem, in urgent need of a Vix..
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.
The morning of March 11, the VIX, a measure of market volatility, crashed below 12 to a 3-year low:
(click to enlarge)
Since the VIX is one of those measures that have a habit of returning to its mean (about 20), this isn’t going to last, that much is fairly certain. Is there a way to profit?
The answer turns out to be surprisingly complex.
The first problem is that the VIX itself isn’t a tradable product, but simply an indicator. That means, one has to look for other instruments that are actually tradable to take a position.
There are plenty of these instruments:
- VIX futures
- VIX ETFs and ETNs
- VIX options
