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Look over in the Options forum, there was a long thread on the VIX. Atticus, at a time when the term structure was just as steep, suggested shorting the options on the futures, and hedging with SPY puts. I put this on at that time and it wound up making money on both sides of the trade...

I've said this before but: 1 - NJ, where I live, has already shown how you can have a progressive consumption tax: the sales tax here excludes food, clothing and medicine: the stuff you need to live, in other words, and the stuff the poor spend most of their money on. Simple, efficient. 2 -...

The point here is not to make a fool of the Southwest guy (whether he is or isn't is up to the reader to decide), the point here, for me, is that the term structure of the VIX is heavily in favor of shorting the futures, as crazy as that sounds with the VIX so low. Believe it or not, after...

Not a bad idea. But if you're going with these ETFs, first look at the curve before you decide which one you're going to fool around with. You can always look at the curve here: http://www.cboe.com/data/volatilityindexes/volatilityindexes.aspx That CBOE site has a ton of info. People...

Simple test of this: do a comparison of the returns on a graph. Rather revealing. XIV is a better-designed fund than VXX, which is a horrible design. VXX has had to do at least one reverse split as I recall, whereas XIV has a normal split in its price history, another very revealing fact. As I...

So, as of right now (this is actually based on the S&P Vix Futures Index, which is calculated by doing this continuous roll) they are selling August and buying September, which they'll be doing until the 21st, at which point they start selling Sept and buying Oct. Given the current term...

OK, so do it when it makes sense to be long the back and short the front. I mean, what do they define right now as the back month (real question, it depends on when they roll)? Sept, which is 31% higher than VIX, or Oct, which is more than 40% higher? See what I mean?

http://www.cboe.com/micro/VIX/vixintro.aspx Take a look at futures vs Vix. Not a good idea to buy calls unless you think VIX is going to shoot a lot higher, in the middle of summer, when nothing is happening. Even the August expiring just days from now is more than 10% higher than where...

There is NO evidence for greater than market returns, sans leverage, from independent sources who have looked, over at Bain. Therefore, it is mathematically impossible, no matter about rollovers (which are supremely and utterly irrelevant to the math) to get to 103 mil by the guy who actually...

I assume you know what this means (from the Ritholz arty above): [/b] If not, let me make it real simple: if you wanted to generate 2.40 for every 1.10 invested, over 16 years, your rate of return would only have to be 5.6%. Now, we know the 1.1 bil wasn't all invested upfront, which is why...

I'm sure there's nothing criminal about it. Dishonest in terms of stretching the law to its limits, yes, criminal, not likely. Embarrassing? You betcha.

As I recall, it was something along the lines of putting some shares from Bain in his IRA/401k at some nominal value, which then wound up being valued at quite a bit more later. Which, on googling, turns out to be one of the theories that would both explain the low tax rate and his huge IRA: [/b]

He's an ideologue. No surprise he'd be a disastrous failure at the art of governing. 'Nuff said.

That about sums it up.

Formula looks familiar, but like the man said, it's Sunday and my eyes are half closed anyway. However, using the VIX is definitely wrong, for the following reasons: 1 - VIX is the average of the implied volatilities for the entire set of options, not any particular one. Each option within...

The Navy and the Marines were meant to be the immediate responders. The danger felt was of a perpetual standing army who's line of command would go to the executive. State militias - the National Guard - were supposed to be the main line of land defense, and they could (and have been)...

McGovern did that in '72. Didn't really work out well.

https://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=743475

This is what happened the one time the choice on Ryan's plan was clear:

Obama's folks, not to mention the PACs, are working on an equivalent to the infamous daisy ad from '64 right now. Talk about a target-rich environment!