Utilizing Two Complementary Strategies to Trade VXX & XIV

In early December we made a second strategy for trading VXX and XIV available to our subscribers: the Volatility Risk Premium (VRP) strategy. You may remember me outlining the excellent performance of this strategy in my previous blog post, Volatility Strategies - Separating Fact From Fiction. I liked the strategy so much I decided to make a few adjustments and launch our own version of VRP to use along with our VXX Bias on our Daily Forecast page.

Why use two strategies for trading volatility ETPs? Because no single strategy is perfect and the market is inherently unpredictable. Using two complementary strategies simultaneously compensates for inherent weaknesses within each of the strategies, reduces drawdowns, and smooths out returns over months and years.

The VXX Bias and VRP strategies each take a very different approach for maximizing gains. The VXX Bias strategy is based on the term structure and momentum of VIX futures, while VRP is based on the price of VIX and historical volatility measurements. However, each of these strategies thrive and struggle depending on the specific market conditions. For example, the VXX Bias strategy has an advantage in handling periods of moderate drawdowns and sustained periods of backwardation. Meanwhile, the VRP strategy tends to be better with choppy markets and periods of gradually increasing volatility when VIX futures are in contango. 

You can see in the backtest results below that neither strategy consistently outperforms the other over a given year, although both VXX Bias and VRP are vastly superior to a buy-and-hold approach with XIV. 

As you can see in the chart above, using the VRP and VXX Bias strategies together (the green columns) provide more consistent returns than using just one strategy alone. In most years the "VRP + VXX Bias" strategy return falls roughly halfway between the VXX Bias and VRP strategies used on their own.  (Note: There are a couple ways to incorporate two strategies, but the easiest way is to trade in VXX or XIV only when they agree on the trade direction, which is how the above results are generated.)

Looking at the strategy statistics below, we see that the VRP + VXX Bias strategy benefits from a reduced maximum drawdown and a 0.90 Sharpe Ratio. 

Other relevant stats for trading only when VRP and VXX Bias agree on direction (years 2004-2014):

- # of trades: 191

- Avg hold time: 9.8 days

- # of days out of market in cash: 821 (out of 2711) --> 30%

- Avg trade return: 5.35%

- Max trade gain: 110.8%

- Max trade loss: -20.3%

The equity curve for each of the strategies (below) illustrates the smaller drawdowns and improved performance of using VRP and VXX Bias together:

Table of annual returns for the above data:

Full test data for both the VRP and VXX Bias strategies can be found in the spreadsheets at the bottom of the Subscribe page. You can also read more about our trading strategy on our Strategy page.

Access to our daily indicators and automated alerts for both the VRP and VXX Bias strategies is available via subscription to Trading Volatility+. 


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Hypothetical and Simulated Performance Disclaimer
The results are based on simulated or hypothetical performance results that have certain inherent limitations. Unlike the results shown in an actual performance record, these results do not represent actual trading. Also, because these trades have not actually been executed, these results may have under- or over-compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated or hypothetical trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to these being shown. Additional performance differences in backtests arise from the methodology of using the 4:00pm ET closing values for XIV, VXX, and ZIV as approximated trade prices for indicators that require VIX and VIX futures to settle at 4:15pm ET.

2015 CBOE Risk Management Conference - Attendees get 30% off Subscription to Trading Volatility+

CBOE's Risk Management Conference is the premier educational forum for users of volatility products and equity derivatives. It is *the* conference for financial professionals to attend to learn the latest risk management tools and tactics from top traders and strategists. 

The next CBOE Risk Management Conference is scheduled for March 4-6 in Carlsbad, California. The agenda is now set with talks from over two dozen industry experts, exploring the latest products, trading strategies and tactics used to manage risk exposure and enhance yields. The full agenda is available here.

As an added bonus, attendees at the March 4-6, 2015 session are able to get a 30% discount* on their first three months of a Trading Volatility+ subscription. 

Our Trading Volatility+ service provides access to:

• Our full suite of volatility metrics and indicators to bring you valuable insight into the movement of VIX ETPs, 
• Our strategies, which utilize variations on widely-used trading indicators (such as Volatility Risk Premium) as well as our own proprietary algorithms (VXX Bias^TM and ZIV Bias^TM),
• Our automated alerts which notify subscribers whenever one of our indicators experiences a critical change in direction, making the strategies easy to follow,
• Our members' forum where you can interact and share ideas with other volatility traders. 

The unique characteristics and profit potential of VIX futures led to the fifth consecutive annual trading volume record in 2014. 2015 is already looking to break that record again as interest in volatility as a tradable asset continues to grow. If you're still shying away from this well-kept secret of sophisticated investors, now is is the time to learn more. A good place to start is with our concise (and FREE!) e-book, Fundamental Concepts and Strategies for Trading Volatility ETPs.

*Discount available only to new subscribers. The discount will be refunded to subscribers after providing proof of event attendance.

Link to Recording of Webinar with Bob Lang and Jay Wolberg

I was invited to join Bob Lang (options trading mentor at http://explosiveoptions.net, contributor to http://thestreet.com, and one of Jim Cramer's go-to technical experts on Mad Money) in a webinar yesterday. The recorded video has been posted online for anyone interested.

We had a great conversation, covering a wide variety of topics in 80 minutes. To help you find topics of interest, I've outlined our discussion along with approximate minute marks.

- Show intro (0:00)

- Bob's current market analysis (1:50)

- Into of Jay (10:15)

- Overview of Volatility (13:25)

- Role of actual market volatility in pricing of forward looking volatility (VIX) (17:18)

- What happens during  recent, brief VIX spikes which quickly revert; impact of QE (24:00)

- Common misconceptions of VXX (30:28)

- Reasons for large blocks of VIX calls (36:15)

- Reason why actual volatility may be higher than implied volatility (39:40)

- Reasons for a rising VIX while the market is rising (41.45)

- Likelihood of seeing a VIX in the 90s again (45:00)

- Reasons for current low VIX regime (47:50)

- Recent pattern of buying XIV on dips and likelihood of continuation of this pattern (51:05)

- Letting data guide trading decisions (53:25)

- XIV technical analysis -- importance of 200-day moving average (54:40)

- XIV indicators (57:30)

- Possibility of rally in XIV in today's market & levels to watch for Friday (1:00:10)

- Do VIX levels have influence on whether equities go up or down (1:02:00)

- Preparing for Black Swan events (1:03:45)

- Current decision making for trading XIV in market Friday (1:08:00)

- Signals for start of new rally in XIV (1:10:30)

- Why Thursday's move in XIV was an indicator that VIX was overbid (1:11:45)

- Tour of free resources at http://tradingvolatility.net (1:14:00)


If you are interested in learning more about trading options from a technical expert, check out Bob's website at http://explosiveoptions.net/ and follow him on Twitter at @aztecs99.

Volatility Trading Outlook With The S&P 500 At All Time Highs

With the debt ceiling drama behind us the S&P has responded by making new all-time highs, while the VIX has fallen back to levels from Sept 20 and are VIX futures are back in a moderate contango. From the VIX Futures Data page:

Since Oct 18, VIX and VIX futures have been essentially frozen with intraday ranges of only a couple points for VIX and a range of closing values of just 0.38 points. The fact that VIX futures across all months are not declining, but flat (and ever so slightly up in months 3-7), is indication that all may not be well -- especially as the S&P is hitting all time highs. Usually when we see the VIX term structure hold steady like this investors are starting to pick up on some sort of risk on the horizon (see May 10th - 21st), however, no risk seems to be readily apparent at the moment (although I can name several that are on my mind). Maybe this is just a period of consolidation after a swift move down, but it doesn't quite sit right with me.

It is a five week roll period this month, with 17 trading days still left until November futures expire on Nov 20. Assuming we manage to avoid unforeseen drama during this time we should expect Nov futures to converge towards VIX (Nov currently at a 11% premium to VIX), and VIX to fall along with HV20 towards HV60. This will cause VXX to drift lower and SVXY higher, however the entire futures curve is once again rather compressed with limited room to the downside and larger risk to the upside. I see a ceiling for XIV over the next few weeks in the $32-33 area (~$125 for SVXY). For ZIV, $36 looks to be the limit.

With people increasingly predicting new highs and getting greedy I start to get concerned and like to raise cash. No one really knows if we'll go on like this for months or if the rally ends tomorrow, but all good things come to end so it's always good to take profits along the way and raise stops to help manage risk.

Is VIX Expensive Yet?

Today the VIX closed at 16.6 while actual market volatility over the past month (HV20) closed at 8.71, resulting of a volatility risk premium of 90.6% (calculated as (VIX/HV20) -1 ) -- (See VIX Futures Data page).

Traders will often look at what is know as the "volatility risk premium" to determine if VIX is cheap or expensive. The volatility risk premium is essentially a comparison of the VIX (expected volatility over the next 30 days (annualized)) and HV20 (actual market volatility over the past 20 trading days, i.e. the trailing 30 days).

The logic is that the market going forward should typically experience a similar amount of volatility that the market has experienced in the past. However, we typically see a VIX greater than HV20 since sellers of options need to be paid a premium for a certain amount of risk that traders expect in the market. A greater amount of expected volatility will cause the premium to increase.

A simple interpretation of this measure is that VIX is considered "expensive" when it is much greater than HV20, and "cheap" when it is much less than HV20.

While this is a relative measurement, today's volatility risk premium of 90.6% looks pretty expensive. But don't expect to VIX to fall just yet.

First of all, the value is a ratio. As actual market volatility increases (during a large rally or large sell off) the ratio will get smaller (given a steady VIX).

Also, 90.6% isn't too crazy just yet. Below are some points over the past 10 years where the market saw other peaks in the volatility risk premium.

• 2/15/12    151.5%     (VIX 21.14; HV20 8.40)
• 3/5/12:     153.6%     (VIX 18.05; HV20 7.12) 
• 5/18/12:   113.1%     (VIX 25.10; HV20 11.78)
• 9/5/12:     195.2%     (VIX 17.74; HV20 6.01)
• 12/28/12: 128.8%     (VIX 22.72; HV20 9.93)
• 1/31/13:   157.8%     (VIX 14.28; HV20 5.54)
• 4/1/13:       74.6%     (VIX 13.58; HV20 7.78)
• 6/3/13:       62.9%     (VIX 16.28; HV20 9.99)
• 8/9/13:     103.5%     (VIX 13.41 HV20 6.59)

The highest this ratio got before the Aug 2011 selloff was 64.1%, which occurred on 8/1/11 (VIX 23.66; HV20 14.42). After that HV20 then pretty quickly rose to a lofty 50.66 (8/29/11) and the ratio hit -36.3%.

More fun facts: 

• The highest HV20 over the past 10 years was 85.19 (on 11/5/2008).
• The highest VIX to HV20 ratio over the past 10 years was 289% on 12/31/10 (VIX 17.75; HV20 4.57)

Lastly, don't forget that if you trade VIX ETPs, they all track to VIX futures and what matters most is the term structure.

Happy Trading!

VIX Futures Flash Warning Signs

Some negative developments in the VIX futures term structure occurred today with a flattening of the term structure (see full current term structure data here):
 - Spread between M1 and M2 narrowed to -0.75
 - Spread between M4 and M7 narrowed to -1.15
 - Spread from M1 to M7 narrowed to just -3.15 points

The roll yields for XIV and ZIV fell to 1.1% and 1.5%, respectively.

To put the M1-M7 spread in context here is a view of the slope of the VIX futures (left axis) along with the price on XIV (right axis). A slope reading below 0.2 has typically been market negative in the very short term over the past few years (today's closing was 0.19).

The rise in VIX to 14.49 (+7.2%) brings it to within 5% of front month futures and increases the risk of a larger VXX spike in the short term. The volatility risk premium remains negative, with actual volatility over the past month (HV21) at 14.77.

The VXX forecast VXX spike gauge reflects these changes with a reading of 5.8. When the reading on here is above ~5.5 you can generally expect some choppiness in the price of XIV & VXX as a best case, and worst case of some large VXX moves upward.

Because of these current conditions and a multitude of warning signals I'm still not interested in a XIV long position. As I've suggested in the past week here, here, and here it makes sense to look into some cheap VXX calls as a hedge if I were long XIV/SVXY or be out altogether.

VIX and SPY Show Positive Correlation For 4th Day In A Row

VIX Futures down slightly today, but remain largely unchanged at the close for 4 days now. The S&P pushed up to within a point of new all-time highs during the day but VIX futures diverged as can be observed in the intraday SPY arbitrage model.

With the VIX futures term structure mostly stationary the spread for the front two months remained at -0.85 making for a roll yield that isn't benefiting XIV much (this lack of movement has also resulted in a mostly stationary VXX Daily Forecast).

Spot VIX also diverged from its normal inverse correlation to the SPY again, making it 4 days in a row or positive correlation. I'd love to see someone run through the data on this to see when the last time was that this happened (typically positive SPY-VIX correlations are negative for the market in the following days).

VIX remains 5.6% below actual market volatility over the past 30 days (HV21 at 14.53) resulting in a continuation of a negative risk premium. While this is unusual it's not unheard of, especially after a recent spike in VIX like we saw in mid-April. If we get a few more low volatility days in the market HV21 will come down to about 13.75 by Thursday.

The daily SPY arbitrage model is still holding a pretty wide spread as well:

Given that the usual correlations seem to be temporarily broken and the contango spread is neutral it seems best to continue to wait it out a bit for a more profitable setup. Alternatively, if I owned XIV/SVXY I still think it's a good idea to pick up some cheap VXX calls as I mentioned via Twitter last Wednesday.


UPDATE
Performance of S&P 500 after 3 or more consecutive days of positive SPY-VIX correlation, from 3/2004 to present:

Actual Volatility and Forward Implied Volatility Continue To Diverge

Actual historical volatility for the S&P 500 over the past 3 months (HV63) fell to 9.24 today, putting current 30-day forward volatility (VIX) at a 50% premium. From the VIX Futures Data page:

This is getting to be a pretty large gap and it looks like it could be a good time for new long positions in XIV in the next day or two. However the risk of a position in XIV right now is that the premium between VIX and front month futures (the yellow and blue lines above) is only 2%. This means that if we do see a VIX spike there is very little "buffer" in M1 to absorb the spike so it will be more likely to see gains as well, especially if VIX stays above M1 for a few days.

We can see this risk reflected in the VXX Daily Forecast gauges. A short VXX (or long XIV) position is still in favor (just barely), but the risk of a spike has been increasing over the past several days. In fact, if you look at the daily chart of VIX you'll see that it's been on a choppy rise over the past 2 weeks -- a pattern that sometimes leads to a large VIX spike. I still think that a smaller position or no position is justified until we see some real relief in the VIX..

Some other interesting action today can be observed by using the intraday SPY arbitrage model, which seemed to be all over the map.

Short term futures were up over 2% (as seen in the decline of XIV), pricing in a downward move in the SPY. The term structure for the first two months flattened to under 1 point until about mid-day when XIV decided to reverse to catch up to SPY and close up 1.5%. VIX futures closed lower and with a wider contango spread (-1.3).

Treasury yields decoupled from SPY, falling all day and closing substantially lower (see TBF). 

High Yield Credit (HYG) sold off pretty hard toward the end of the day and finished negative.

So a bit of disagreement between assets and reason for continued caution. 

Looking at the New VIX Futures Months After March Expiration

Today is the last day of trading for March 2013 VIX futures.  As discussed would happen in my week ahead post, March futures closed within about 3% of VIX.

Closing term structure:

Looking forward to tomorrow April currently sits at 15.4 and May at 16.25 resulting in a smaller contango spread of -0.85, which applies to XIV, VXX, and UVXY. With VIX at 14.39, April VIX futures are just 7% higher.

For those looking at trading ZIV, the contango spread between month 4 and month 7 will start narrower at -1.5 tomorrow.

Implied volatility has popped up a bit off of realized volatility, but with a volatility risk premium of 26% VIX pretty well priced once more. Here is the current chart from the VIX Futures Data page:

There was not much room to play in the intraday SPY arbitrage model today as the model stuck closely to the SPY.

And in case you missed it I posted about a new tool today to measure Twitter sentiment on VXX which was positive earlier in the day but is unsurprisingly heading toward 50/50 as VXX ended the day flat.

The Week Ahead In VIX Futures

Last week wrapped up with VIX and front month futures down heavily, to the point where our normally smooth curve is starting to resemble a cliff.  VIX Futures term structure week over week:

While it is not abnormal to see the front part of the curve steepen as front month futures converge with spot VIX as expiration draws closer, forward 30-day volatility (VIX) is now less than actual realized volatility over the past one and three months, suggesting that VIX is underpriced (a negative volatility risk premium).

Historical volatility vs implied volatility chart from Friday:

With March futures currently 11% above spot VIX it should be noted that this convergence can happen by having a rising VIX, not just a declining front month as some may have grown accustomed to.