On Wednesday I had an opportunity to serve as a guest columnist for The Striking Price on behalf of Steven Sears at Barron’s for the eighth time, focusing my attention on some of the early findings from the VIX and More Fear Poll in Calm Down and Exploit Others’ Anxieties.
In some respects, the most recent Barron’s article is a companion piece to another Barron’s article I penned in May: Be Greedy While Others Are Fearful. This time around I delve into some of the emerging behavioral finance aspects of the survey results, specifically related to geographical and temporal proximity bias. I also discuss the merits of a SPY short straddle trade as well as long VIX puts as a means to take advantage of some market distortions due to that bias.
As far as the most recent Fear Poll goes, this week the race for the top spot looks as if it will go down to the wire and for the first time so far, there are more than two viable candidates for the top slot. [If you have not voted in the weekly poll yet, now is as good a time as any…]
Related posts:
- Fear Poll: Fiscal Cliff Fears Spike , Concerns About Excessive Central Bank Interventions Rise
- Fiscal Cliff Worries Grow as Election Nears
- U.S Fiscal Cliff Fears Top VIX Fear Poll Again
- U.S. Fiscal Cliff Concerns Top Results in Inaugural VIX and More Fear Poll
- The Rise of Fiscal Cliff Concerns
- A Conceptual Framework for Volatility Events
- Forces Acting on the VIX
- Thinking About Volatility (First in a Series)
A full list of my Barron’s contributions:
- Calm Down and Exploit Others’ Anxieties (November 14, 2012)
- How to Trade Options Around Volatile Events (July 10, 2012)
- Be Greedy While Others Are Fearful (May 3, 2012)
- Ways to Turn Volatility into an Asset Class (January 12, 2011)
- There’s Opportunity in Uncertainty (November 18, 2010)
- Will Market Volatility Return to Crisis Levels (September 15, 2010)
- The Perils of Predicting Volatility (May 20, 2010)
- Take a Longer View on Volatility (July 2, 2009)
Disclosure(s): none