historical volatility

VXX closes below 28

Posted by atg on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 7:31pm
Did you catch our COO Mark Sebastian's mention on Mad Money.  View the Video here.  As a follow up, on February 15th, we will be presenting a webinar:  Using Options To Trade Stock Earnings.  Register here. One thing that can be said of the products related to volatility is that they make new lows more quietly than they make new highs.  A new short term low goes by with a whisper.   Also, the trend in the products does get to be a near one way train at the ends.  Let review a few simple stats as the VXX last broke through $28, albeit in the other direction.

Will Q1 2012 Be Boring?

Posted by acparis on Mon, 01/09/2012 - 4:06pm
We will be having the second free webinar in our using the VIX to trade series.  Go to our EVENTS page to register. I know it might sound funny, but it is possible that the first quarter of 2012 could be a really boring quarter.  The VIX has normalized and is about to dip below 20%.  The SPX isn’t moving at all.  SPX IV is now trading at the highest premium to 10 day realized IV that we have seen since April of 2011.

When the Time Spread Edge Can Look Too Good

Posted by atg on Wed, 01/04/2012 - 6:41pm
When the Time Spread edge looks too good to be true....  With the SPX closing flat today, I thought it would be interesting to identify other phenomena outside of the big indexes.  I did find the non-pull back today mildly bullish, and I think it has a hint of more upside to come (the Euro mess seems to be accepted now).  The ECB credit facility is providing the liquidity needed a la TARP, so they learned a lesson from the Fed in taking action.  The long term Euro budgetary solution remains to be seen, which will require, unfortnunately, more action. 

Are AAPL options cheap enough to buy?

Posted by atg on Thu, 12/01/2011 - 7:01pm
First some business, Option Pit has TOTALLY revamped much of our programming.  The new programming is designed to deliver