Volatility Views

VOLATILITY REVIEW A week of mild rallies, trade war progress and dwindling recession fears killing volatility. Non-farms did not spark any volatility. SPIKES - 12.8, down nearly 1.5-points from last show VIX Cash - 13, 1-point lower than last week VVIX - 79, 8-points lower than last show VIX Options - ADV: 523k, Total 10.0m (7.68m Calls, 2.32m Puts) VXXB - 28, 1.5-points lower than last show LYFT extremely volatile post IPO.       VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Comment from T Mal - I don’t do those for a credit 1x2, might as well reduce the distance between the strikes and pay a little Question from White Leo - When do you think we’ll see new inverse volatility tradeable products hit the market? I miss the old XIV days. Comment from Mark Brandt - Embrace the coming Volpocalypse Question from PBWO9 - Hello to my favorite vol show. Thx for keeping me company on the train every week. Love it! 5 stars on all platforms from me. My q - I know you’ve talked a lot about the feb “VIXocalypse” from last year and the meltdown of the inverse volatility products like xiv. Now with the benefit of hindsight do you think that the prevelance of inverse products made the volatility spike much worse than it otherwise would have been. Also is the inverse true and now that those products are dead are we somewhat insulated from a repeat of vix spiking back up to 80. Question from Jim Daily - Just to clarify. Are they really staying with $VXXB? There’s no name change coming?     CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 13.75 Andrew - 13.20 Simon - 13.25 Next week: Mark L. - 13.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 12.65

VOLATILITY REVIEW A week of mild rallies is killing volatility. Latest Brexit fail is not spooking the market. SPIKES - 14.1, nearly 3-points lower than last show. VIX Cash - 14, 2.5-points higher than last week. VVIX - 87, 11-points lower than last show. VIX Options - ADV: 549k, Total 9.37m (7.18m Calls, 2.19m Puts). More 1x2 call spread today. VXXB - 29.5, 2.5-points lower than last show.     CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 14.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 13.55 Next week: Mark L. - 13.75 Mark S. - 13.20 Simon - 13.25

VOLATILITY REVIEW SPIKES - 16.87, nearly 5-points higher than last show VIX Cash - 16.5, nearly 4-points higher than last week VVIX - 98 - 18-points higher than last show VXXB - 32, nearly 4-points higher than last show VIX Options - ADV: 569k, Total 8.71m (6.65m Calls, 2.06m Puts) A strong selloff sparked by weak economic data in US & Europe. Europe's stock volatility gauge hits six-week high as weak data stirs worries         VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Question from Brew Master 3 - What does all of this mean for the vol market? Is this a problem for new vol players and products trying to get into the space? Comment from Mark Brandt - Sold the 32d 15/11 put spread to buy the 21 calls for a nickel. Liking it! Question from Nico Lee - There are so many questions swirling around VIX right now. How do we avoid these types of problems in the future so people can have faith that the volatility space isn’t rigged against them.       CRYSTAL BALL Next week: Mark L. - 14.25 Mark S. - 12.37 Simon - 13.55

VOLATILITY VIEWPOINT Guest: Simon Ho - CEO, T3 Index What about the burgeoning volatility market in Australia? What is price dragging? How does it help to avoid the manipulation issues plaguing VIX? Is SPIKES performing up to your expectations during the recent resurgence of volatility?       VOLATILITY REVIEW Weak jobs and trade reports SPIKES  -17.25, 2.5-points higher than last show. VIX Cash - 17.50, nearly 3-points higher than last week. VVIX - 91, 11-points higher than last show VIX Options - ADV: 499k, Total 9.23m A ratio stupid of 1x3 roll in VIX VXXB - 34.1, 2.6-point higher than last week.       CRYSTAL BALL Next week: Mark L. - 14.75 Mark S. - 13.75 Simon - 15.25

VOLATILITY VIEWPOINT SPIKES What is it? Why bring it to the market now? SPIKES launched on Feb 21. How did it go? How has the market responded to SPIKES? How is the liquidity shaping up in SPIKES in the early days?   VOLATILITY REVIEW SPIKES - 14.79 VIX Cash - 14.75 VVIX - 80 VIX Options - ADV: 476k VXXB - 31.5   VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL Question from J Sign - Is Spikes live? I can’t find it on my broker screen? What’s the ticker? Question from Vex1 - Why does it take so long for new volatility products to come to market?   CRYSTAL BALL Next week: Mark L. - 14.50 Mark S. - 13.05

Best of Volatility Views: Back to the BeginningIt's a shortened holiday week. So we thought we'd take you back to the primordial ooze days of Volatility Views with the inaugural sneak preview episode from August 2011.  

VOLATILITY REVIEW VIX Cash - 14.8, 2.5-points lower than last week. VVIX - 80, 7.5-points lower than last show. VIX Options - ADV:476k, Total 6.20M (4.86M Calls, 1.34M Puts) VXXB - 32.5, 2.5-points lower than last show. SVXY - 46, unchanged from last show.         VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL #QOTW - $VXX is dead! Long Live $VXXB! There's a (somewhat) new kid on the #Volatility trading block. Are you trading $VXXB #options yet? If not, how are you getting your #Volatility fix these days? $VIX $TVIX $SVXY 43% - Yes: Jumped into $VXXB 11% - No: Spreads are too wide 14% - No: Prefer $TVIX, etc 32% - No: Prefer $VIX #options Question from Thomas Weber - If I am short a deep in the money call in SPY (delta near 1), what are the odds I will be assigned the Thursday night before Friday expiration? Question from Jelevis - Does it make sense to just get long ratio vertical put spreads in VXX as opposed to just buying the puts? Make the premium negligible so you don’t get hurt if it spikes against you in the near term. If it drops it will probably do so slowly so you have time to get out. Or you can just pick up VXX shares - at a hopefully low strike price so further erosion will be limited. Then you can always just wheel out of those if the need arises. Thoughts Vol swammis? This the VXX silver bullet trade?       CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 17.25 Mark S. -  16.25 Next week: Mark L. - 15.50 Andrew - 14.25

VOLATILITY REVIEW VIX Cash - 17.18, can you say Bullseye!? VVIX - 87.5, approx. 8-points higher than last show, dipped to 76.45 earlier this week. VIX Options - 156k, ADV: 497k, Total 8.72m (6.68m Calls, 2.05m Puts) VXXB - 35, 2-points lower than last show. Today - 40k, ADV - 199k       VOLATILITY VOICEMAIL #QOTW - With everyone still shaking off #SuperBowl haze, let's start the week by applying your trading mindset to next season. If you had to buy a call on one team to make it into next year's big game - which team are you buying? Feeling another team - let us know below. - Patriots - Rams - Bears (legally obligated) - Saints Question from Brian Collamer - Hi Mark, Listened to the last VV show and heard you mention my trade again and thought I'd set the record straight....This trade was in my ROTH, can't be naked anything.  Sold one 15 call, bought two 19 calls. Got a credit of .05c.  Did I buy or sell to open this position?Closed position for a debit of .07c.  Did I buy or sell to close this position? Round trip with commissions cost was a little under $30 (Probably should have bought Salvo's book instead of giving turity bucks to TD Ameritrade...) I think I had the right idea for a hedge, just got the "moneyness" of the strikes wrong. VX curve was very flat. March call prices were very close in price to May calls.  Since I'm paying almost the same price for a May call spread vs a March call spread, does it make sense to get more time to expiration?  Thanks again! Question from BPin - Heard your discussion of the listener question from Brian Collamer on the last few episodes. Seems like the main concern was being short “units.” Can you clarify what you meant by that? Cool show. What do you guys think of the vix coverage on zero hedge? Comment from Options Game - Translated from French by Microsoft - You should follow @Options, it's a good podcasts that will give you ideas.     CRYSTAL BALL Last week: Mark L. - 17.05 Mark S. - 15.25 Next week: Mark L. -17.25 Mark S. - 16.26

Volatility Review - Jan VIX futures volume down size from 2017 - Overview of Hot VIX options positions - Overview of interesting VIX options trades - Will there be an end-of-day selloff in VIX futures from VXX - First look at hot VXXB options positions - Earnings Volatility Overview: AMZN, MSFT, FB, QCOM, AAPL and more Volatility Voicemail - Why is the market so slow to adopt VXXB - Can market makers see if your spx or vix order is open or close - and more   Crystal Ball The Meatball finally wins. This weeks' picks: Mark L. - 17.05 Mark S. - 15.25