Volatility Views 200: VIX Down, but Premium Up

Volatility Review: VIX got crushed, VIX IV did not. CBOE announced it has created a series of 13 "Buffer Protect Indexes."

Russells Weekly Rundown:

• VIX Options: A strong volume week - particularly Wednesday (1.08M). Total 8.52M (6.46M Calls, 2.07M Puts)
• Trading hours for RVX Futures expanded - new start time 7:30am CST.
• Earning volatility this week: Alcoa, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Delta Airlines
• Crude Oil: OIV/OVX - up 9% to $50.50. WTI Crude - 3% into oil meeting.
• Gold: GVZ 17.83 - well off recent highs.

Volatility Voice mail: Listener questions and comments

• Question from LosAngelino: What happened to the single name VIXes? You guys talked about them on the show years ago for names like Apple and Amazon. But I do not see them trading anywhere. Were they ever listed?
• Question from Nick C. - Do OTM VIX calls suffer from the same inflated volatility premium as S&P 500 OTM puts? If so does it not make them both prohibitively expensive to use as a hedging vehicle?

Crystal Ball: Last episode the VIX guesses were:

• Mark L. - 14.5
• Russell - 17
• Mark S. - 15.5

Big earnings week next week: GOOG, Goldman, INTC, IBM, MSFT, NFLX, Southwest, United Airlines, YHOO