I'm a relatively small fish, and usually my trades contribute little to the overall daily volume of a product. But with VIX options, I'm often the majority of the OI for a given contract. Besides racking up commissions on hundreds of contracts, it also makes me wonder where the big players are trading. I looked at VX futures, but there is no option chain. Are there any other ways to get exposure to VIX options? It would be great to find options with a multiplier of $1000 (like VX) or more.
VIX futures is where the volume and money is. If you are smart and study a bit you can mix the VIX options and VX futures but brokers usually dont combine them.
What do you mean by mix them? I'm looking for the same exposure as VIX options, just with larger contracts. Do you have a link? I could not find any options on the /VX futures chain.
The CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE) offer the VX futures while the CBOE options exchange offers the VIX options on the VX future. Both are cash settled and there is no cross margining for customer accounts as the NFA/CFTC regulates futures and the SEC/FINRA regulates the option markets for CBOE options. With regard to VIX options, OI has nothing to do with depth and liquidity of those markets. All that matters is if the Market maker can hedge the trades. By the way, the VX future is 10X the size of the VIX options. The VX Future is $1000/Point while the VIX options is $100/Point.
I just didn't understand - you are saying that with IB you see options on the /VX futures? I didn't find those anywhere, and only see the VIX index options (multiplier $100).
Ask your broker to farm it out to a floor broker. You won't get a larger product, but you'll frequently see much greater size. Your costs will go up as will your liquidity in "non" fast markets. You'll see why physical pits still exist and VIX is a classic example. Your broker has no requirement to it and they may be only able to do it tied to the future.
When I said you cannot.mix them Robert explains it. You can be hedging a VX position with vix futures but your broker might not see it that way. Portfolio.margin helps but as long as you have the vx futures margin covered you should be fine unless you want to.sell a vix call against a long vx future. Mightbe subject to two.margins depending on your broker.