MARKETS,Anybody even yet?

[dinghy]

Very hard to explain. Best to read it.

It's either very opaque, or just over my head. Either of which seems plausible.

SVOL buys and sells put and call options, and futures contracts on VIX futures. ( volatility index )

The ticker symbol suggests that it's shorting the VIX. I'm sure you recall the Volmageddon event when some of the short-VIX funds blew up. I'm trying to figure out why this one is different. They say they're hedged, but how are they achieving such stellar performance if weighted down by hedges?

I'll give a pick of my own, just so I don't look like a troll. Today I'm buying VALE, priced below $9.50.

It's everything the market currently hates: base metals, emerging markets, and communism. I don't have the financials at my fingertips, but it's a nicely performing company with a PE <5 and iirc a double-digit % yield.

[doris13]

today's UBS statement has me up 10k so i made back the 4k loss from last month plus 6k more

[olds442jetaway]

Great Doris. I’m going to check out Vale too.

[olds442jetaway]

Vale has a nice dividend, but is having a down year. Wish my crystal ball worked. Always good to buy cheap if there is upside potential. I think they are banking on copper. I’m going to wait for a slight uptick then grab a little.

[olds442jetaway]

Volmageddon I don’t recall, but I’ve never been into puts, calls, options, etc. The only reason I’m nibbling at them now is I can get an ETF and let them do the and hopefully good work.

[dinghy]

I also just picked up some XYLD. Global S and P 500 Covered call ETF.

I digress. I looked at this, and I'm perplexed. Can this be correct? Since 2013 inception, the price is basically unchanged in the low 40s. All the return has come from dividends, probably averaging around 7%.

During good times, XYLD severely lags SPY. But during bad times, it fully participates. In the 2020 crash, XYLD plunged from 53 to 34. I believe that was roughly in line with SPY.

So what is the point of this fund? Is there some favorable circumstance that could happen, but hasn't occurred in the last 11 years?

[dinghy]

Volmageddon I don’t recall, but I’ve never been into puts, calls, options, etc. The only reason I’m nibbling at them now is I can get an ETF and let them do the and hopefully good work.

I believe the VIX goes back 20 years. Associated ETFs have existed for several years, and some of them (the short-oriented ones) blew up, ie, they suddenly went to zero on a VIX spike.

The way I understand the VIX, it's an oscillator. So the long-term tendency is flat rather than up. And the VIX itself doesn't yield anything.

So I would be puzzled by a product that seeks to profit from it. I understand some investors may want to bet on the VIX direction, but that's different from the way people are perceiving SVOL.

[TripleTriple]

Volmageddon I don’t recall, but I’ve never been into puts, calls, options, etc. The only reason I’m nibbling at them now is I can get an ETF and let them do the and hopefully good work.

The way I understand the VIX, it's an oscillator. So the long-term tendency is flat rather than up.

I'm not sure why I thought it was like a sine curve pointed slightly downward...

[dinghy]

I'm not sure why I thought it was like a sine curve pointed slightly downward...

The UncasVIX points downward .

[olds442jetaway]

If I can find something that stays the same price over the years that beats inflation or bank interest, I’m fine with it. At my age, I’m not looking for growth necessarily. In case of a crash, I don’t have 20 years to wait for a comeback. For instance in 2001, Cisco Systems crashed and survived, but still isn’t back to its old levels. That’s 23 years. Just one example. One reason nowadays ETFs can be a good way to go.