VXX
Buy VolI am a believer that this bear market is not over.
seems unlikely to me that the longest Bull market is followed by the shortest Bear market (I stole that).
Since the advent of QE and massive Central Bank stimulus programs Volatility has been suppressed significantly.
Technically the VIX volatility index at ~$18 is a buy in my books.
Got in last week just below 18 and am looking for capitulation to sell into.
It just seems hard to believe that the Vol we saw in December was the last of it...
Good place to add hedges if you are of the opinion risk assets are going higher as well.
As major Equity indices are now sitting at a significant resistance level and have shown signs of weakness this seems like a pretty good risk/reward play right here.
I expressed my long through Options (fighting Theta).
SPY/VXX divergence is sounding an alarmSince Christmas Eve 2018 we've seen a vicious rally from the lows. On December 27th, I called for a rally to 2625 before I would try getting short again. Unfortunately, the pain trade has been on as nearly every technician called for resistance in the 2620-2630 S&P levels and my subsequent short call was stopped out.
Now that we've seen overall market bearishness flip to bullishness and a lot of the shorts squeezed out of their positions, it's high time to start looking for signals of a resumption of the bearish trend. One of which is the divergence in price action in the VXX versus the SPY on Friday. Normally, SPY and VXX trade opposite of each other, however, on Friday we saw SPY open higher and close much higher than its open. VXX, on the other hand, opened lower and closed above its opening price. I believe this divergence is as good as any that allows us to take a position with a tight stop:
Buy VXX @ 37.50 or lower
Target: $41.75
Stop: $36.20 (a new low)
The VXXThe VXX is a stock created to track volatility in the stock market. Basically, the stock acts as a form of insurance. Its there for when the stock market crashes. The stock goes up when the overall broader stock market falls. In times of uncertainty or during an economic decline the volatility (VXX) will rise while investors sell stocks. Currently we are seeing uncertainty (government shutdown, China trade war and rising interest rates) we do not have economic decline. I created a trend line on the VXX once the Federal Reserve had its meeting October earlier of last year. Since then, the pattern seems to hold on that particular trend line. Today was the third time price had reached the trend line in a couple of weeks and I thought it would be a good idea to pay attention. It would be a fair assumption that if the White House doesn't open the government or China trade deal cannot be reached the VXX index will move up like it did twice in the last 3-4 months. It would make sense to hold shares of VXX until either the government reopens or there is a resolution on the China trade deal.
VIX Bear CaseVIX appears to be being sold, against the common sentiment of bearishness. This suggest that the big players are bullish. I believe that being short on VIX is a smart play for upcoming few months.
Higher Volatility on the Way! Long VXXA clear disparity has emerged between the level of the VIX at the beginning of the year and the level of the VIX currently. The VIX tends to be a great indicator of fear and capitulation (capitulation usually marking long-term or interim bottoms) and it seems to be clear that there is currently more complacency than panic at the moment.
Typically a rising VIX means a falling market and any prediction of a much higher VIX also means a much lower market. On Friday we lost 50 S&P points and the VIX moved only 1 point higher! What kind of move do we need to get this to budge? In essence, we could be in for a crash over the coming weeks.
I am playing this long volatility call by purchasing a SPY at-the-money straddle. On Friday, at the close, I purchased the SPY 261 Jan 9 2019 straddle for $10.40. That being said, I think the VXX can be bought with the following parameters:
Buy VXX on a break of the resistance line @ $41.85.
Target 1: $45.90
Target 2: $53
Stop: $38
Predicting the volatility of the volatility. ETFs use VIX as a resource to automatically hedge their holdings. This requirement for hedging is expanding with the popularity of ETFs. The channel shows the range of price volatility due to ETP creator arbitrages to balance the ETFs' true value. I've outlined some short term predictions for the behavior of volatility. Remember, it's volatile to trade volatile stocks!