Traders have been increasingly eager to speculate on the future direction of interest rates. The volatility implied by options on 2-, 5-, 10-, and 30-year Treasury notes and bonds has lifted the Merrill Lynch MOVE Index above 110. For perspective, note that the recent high of 116 occurred on May 6, the infamous “flash crash” day.
Despite the well-known concerns many have about the complexity of leveraged ETFs and options on them, speculators haven’t hesitated to express their…
Felix Salmon is doubtful about whether it is possible to hedge tail risk, and I wholeheartedly agree with the data he cites showing that, of eight major asset classes, only volatility and managed futures offer genuine non-correlation to market returns. In fact, I’ll go a step further: I’m not that enthusiastic about the benefits of managed futures, at least in their current form. As a registered commodity trading advisor, I’ve seen the sorts of strategies that most of…
Equity investors who want a broad-based hedge have essentially three vehicles from which to choose: equity index options (SPY, SPX, ES, etc.), VIX futures (or their ETF permutations), and VIX options. In this piece, Larry McMillan makes the case for using VIX options instead of SPX derivatives, and this is his best argument:
In my opinion, the purchase of VIX calls is a much better, more dynamic way, to approach protection. That is because VIX will explode…
When some brokerages calculate margin on complex option spreads, they don't allow for the fact that it's impossible for an out-of-the-money bull put spread and an OTM bear call spread on the same underlying both to expire at maximum loss—so they withhold margin on both spreads independently. Options-centric brokers (like the ones who autotrade our newsletters) don't require double margin on a balanced iron condor or butterfly (i.e., where the vertical spreads are equal and all contracts have the same expiration date)…but thanks to a regulatory crack-down in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis, it's increasingly likely that any deviation from a balanced iron condor or butterfly will cost you margin on both sides…
Crude has been hammered pretty hard in recent weeks. My instincts tend, like yours probably do, toward being a net seller of options when implied volatility has become historically expensive. But it’s also a good idea to respect the current trend, as I mention here:
While capturing historically high implied volatility is often a profitable approach, a price trend this strong should be respected, so any short volatility trade should either be long some gamma or should have…
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
0 Comments