This seems topical at the moment, with the recent spike. Seems there's been extra written on it lately. So just what are your favorite ways to express a bullish outlook on S&P volatility? Here's what I did recently: Noticing the Vix was below 10 last week, I figured it was just a matter of time before it went back up. I decided to sell my long XIV position. I knew I did not want to pay the contango tax by owning VXX, but that tax seems unavoidable. The best I could do to mitigate it--as far as I know--was to work with the products farther out on the term structure, where contango is lower. I noticed the August futures contract, some four months out, had a sunken position in the term structure--it looked disproportionately low and cheap relative to its neighbors on the curve. Seemed like a safe(r) place to go short atm puts. Low-ish contango of the fourth month contract, inordinately lower contango at that moment, positive theta, and a low Vol environment all seemed to make for a decent long Vol setup. Then the spike came this week and the trade paid off. Closed the position the day of the spike. Then I placed a short Vol trade and made even more money over the next two days, but that's another thread. That's my little setup. Can this be improved upon, or replaced by other, perhaps better long Vol plays?