I've forgone a bunch of solid trades trying to call the correction with vix etfs...ate up almost 50% of my money thus far.
That is such a noob mistake...I shouldn't be trying to short the correction I should be waiting until after the fact and going long from the bottom.
I saw the 10x and such gains in aug-oct last year and I had onr of those pavlov dog moments, I immediately set out to know everything about the products and figured it was worth thr contango.risk. I bought into TVIX in late July...obviously that is how that has turned out thus far. At this point I'm thinking it's worth hanging on to with all the central bank hoopla in the event that something precipitates a sell-off. But the rational way to play that exact scenario would be instead of salivating at a 10x gain from trying to call the timing of a correction, just sit in cash until there is said correction and buy inverse vix products AFTER the sell-off. I had positions in JPM @ $33 after the whale ordeal CHK @ $16.50 WAG @ $29 after the Alliance boots acquisition VVUS @ $21 after the FDA advisory vote short FB @ $37 from the get-go BAC @ $7.50 I know that I have a pretty decent ability to make calls on indicidual companies, Gave it all back for this fucking volatility manuever. At least as of yet, it still could work but the cortisone is fucking me up.
Then again, what's it worth if I lose 50% before I double up, nothing. Rollercoaster ride to nowhere. One mistake I'll never make again if nothing else, that's for sure.
your feelings work against you sometimes...there is money to be made in vix derivatives .. just not outright exposing yourself to contango/super roll cost.. one thing you can do is go into the vix options and put ratio backspreads in the options and get similar long volatility exposure without the roll cost doing you in... you roll it yourself.. roll one ratio backspread from one month to the next.. do it for credits even.. the etf products were a wall st invention to attract retail money.. they make .85 percent for what probably amounts to a automated algo sell front month buy backmonth in quanities every day... these ETF's are for the people that don't wanna look a little deeper into the mechanics of futures and options trading.. and frankly if your not willing to do that.. dont' trade anything with the vix name on it..
High jacking .... I'm just talking. Ignore me if you like.... I didn't think my post was much of a tangent