The Lemon Fool

DiamondEcho wrote:

hiriskpaul wrote: I am surprised no one questioned this. My short S&P 500 puts have a strike of 2400, not 5400! Similarly, WTI strike should be 5650, not 5400.

I noticed it was incorrect, despite not closely following these instruments. I occasionally have random moments like this too and that's what I put it down to, no big deal - it happens

Which I had sold puts at 5400 as the return would have been a lot more than on my 2400s!

Vix now looking more favourable for svxy:

http://vixcentral.com

Regards,

Closed out half my short SPX puts just before the close, having gained 90% of the maximum profit. Will probably hold the remainder, scrooge like, until expiry.

Big change announced by ProShares in relation to SVXY, from 28/02/18 they are changing the return from 1x the inverse of the index to 0.5x the inverse of the index. No advance warning given. Effect is that potential profits and losses are reduced. Speculation abounds that the regulators may have encouraged this given the carnage experienced in SVXY and XIV a month ago. I suppose one major implication of this change (favourable) is that a sharp increase in VIX is now less likely to wipe out an investment in SVXY.

http://www.proshares.com/news/proshare_ ... _etfs.html

The excitement of a month ago appears to have finally settled down, spot VIX has closed the week at 14.64 with the first month futures higher and the second month futures higher still with the welcome return of contango. I do not expect a return to the subdued level of volatility of 2017 however a long SVXY position now has both the tailwind of contango again as well as the reduced risk of wipeout since the deleveraging of the ETF referred to in my previous post. As always not a recommendation.

Well my previous post signalled a false dawn but after another volatile month or so perhaps we are now finally off to the races on this trade. VIX is back down to c 15 and contango has now been re-established. Keeping 'em crossed.

For anyone still interested in this SVXY closed today at its highest level since the collapse 4 months ago with VIX falling back sub 12 and contango beginning to widen out. Perhaps this will now start to pay off (says he hopefully).

ProShares have announced that SVXY will undergo a 1 for 4 reverse split effective 18th September. This means that the number of shares held will decrease by a factor of 4 and the price per share will increase by a factor of 4:

http://www.proshares.com/news/proshares ... 92018.html

Since the rule change in February to track only half the movement in the VIX the price of SVXY has been much less volatile and remains at a low number (c.14), maybe this is driving the reverse split.

Sorry - to save me reading thru the whole thread:

Q1: Is their an LSE listed instrument for going long the VIX?

Q2: What LSE or NYSE epic will show the VIX?

Thnx

SKYSHIP wrote:Sorry - to save me reading thru the whole thread:

Q1: Is their an LSE listed instrument for going long the VIX?

Q2: What LSE or NYSE epic will show the VIX?

Thnx

Q1. I don't know of one on the LSE.
Q2. VIX is the ticker for the cash VIX in NY.

My trading hitherto has been to go long SVXY to short the VIX futures and earn the contango over a long period of time. I stopped doing this a while back as they changed the contract terms in a way which made it less suitable IMO. I now simply trade the VIX futures on IG Index. This is probably the simplest and cheapest way of going long or short. The Oct and Nov futures are currently offered. The spread is 0.1 of a point and the minimum bet size is £100 a point. If going long be aware of how contango works against you unless you intend to trade over a short time horizon.