Weekly Options Coming on Strong
When the CBOE made a push to expand interest in weekly options about two years ago, their efforts were initially met with a fair degree of skepticism. Over time, however, weekly options have found a dedicated following, with the CBOE “weeklys” grow...
VIX Premium to SPX Historical Volatility at Record High in Q1
Back in September 2010, in VIX and Historical Volatility Settling Back into Normal Range, I presented an earlier version of the chart below to explain that in spite of the protestations of the time, the relationship between the VIX and historical volat...
Q&A: VXX Declines, Yet April 20 Calls Rise
A reader asked earlier today: Can you explain to a newbie why VXX is down 1.05 today yet the April 20 calls are up .05? This is a great question and one which I receive in one form or another on a regular basis. While there are a...
The IMOS Saga, Cramer and Options
I must admit that when I first posted about ChipMOS Technologies (Bermuda) LTD (IMOS) two weeks ago, it never occurred to me that there might be a follow-up post and certainly not two more chapters to the story, yet here we are. For a while it looked ...
IMOS Up 54% in Two Weeks; IV Still Lags HV
ChipMOS Technologies (Bermuda) LTD (IMOS), is up 54% in two weeks and slightly less than that in the 12 days since I mentioned the stock in IMOS Breaks Out, But Implied Volatility Fails to React. While the company did report earnings last Friday, the ...
IMOS Breaking Out, But Implied Volatility Fails to React
While I generally trade more ETPs than single stocks, I am always keeping an eye on what is moving in the stock world, particularly in terms of new highs, as it helps inform some of my thinking in terms of bottoms up sector analysis. One of the stocks ...
Volatility Indices vs. Futures
The CBOE Volatility Index, also known as the VIX, is the most famous and widely quoted of all the volatility indices. It measures the market’s expectations of the volatility in the S&P 500 index (SPX) for the next 30 calendar days. Unbeknownst to...
Comparing SPLV and VQT
Based on some of the questions and comments that came out of Wednesday’s Three New Risk Control ETFs from Direxion, there appears to be a significant portion of the investment community that is uncertain about just how some ETPs are attempting to dam...
Q & A: The Historical Volatility of VQT
Questions from readers are where I get to learn which aspects of volatility cause the most confusion and consternation among investors, so one of the things I will strive to do in 2012 is take more of the Q&A exchanges that might be buried in the c...
The Low Fear Selloff
Steven Place of Investing with Options has a video post up this morning, Options Market Does Not Care About Selloff, in which he discusses how the implied volatility in various asset class volatility indices (VIX, GVZ, EVZ) are showing a very muted rea...
VIX Puts Looking Attractive
A lot can happen to the financial markets in the course of the next day or so and by my unofficial reckoning, quite a few of those are not just scary, but could have a 2008 flavor to them. With the VIX at 30.60, implied volatility certainly is high, b...
